Rogue Chiefs

Benin recorded its lowest voter turnout rate ever – just 27.12% - during its controversial April 28, legislative elections from which the opposition was excluded.

Footage from the heart of the revolution all contained one thing in common: the familiar beat of music. Sudanese music has always been heavily laden with political rhetoric.

In some West African societies women in menopause are believed to be equipped with supernatural powers. There’s Support the argument put forward in the African feminist literature that seniority trumps gender in an African context.

Political space is shrinking in Africa. More often than not, political opposition in countries across the continent has been met with internet shutdowns, repression, and outright violence.

Footage from the heart of the revolution all contained one thing in common: the familiar beat of music. Sudanese music has always been heavily laden with political rhetoric.

In some West African societies women in menopause are believed to be equipped with supernatural powers. There’s Support the argument put forward in the African feminist literature that seniority trumps gender in an African context.

A genuine and inspiring people’s revolution, powerful yet so far remarkably peaceful, perhaps a second Arab Spring, has been unfolding in Algeria.

It is packed full of fascinating terms from across the continent, from a variety of languages including Kiswahili, Chibemba, Kikuyu, Wolof, isiZulu and isiXhosa.

ON  December 17, 2010, young Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself alight in front of the local governor’s office in an ultimate attempt to denounce corruption and injustice in his country. This act of despair triggered the Arab Spring. Eight years later, despite the government’s sustained efforts, corruption seems …

Political space is shrinking in Africa. More often than not, political opposition in countries across the continent has been met with internet shutdowns, repression, and outright violence.

As Tutsi intellectuals and academics were actively targeted and murdered in 1994, important intellectual capital was lost. However, current literature scholars have also repeatedly argued that Rwandans self-censor their research on politically sensitive topics.

Parallels have been drawn between events in Algeria and the “Arab Spring” which swept through North Africa from 2011. The uprisings led to the overthrow of three authoritarian regimes: Tunisia’s Ben Ali, Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak.

ON  December 17, 2010, young Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself alight in front of the local governor’s office in an ultimate attempt to denounce corruption and injustice in his country. This act of despair triggered the Arab Spring. Eight years later, despite the government’s sustained efforts, corruption seems …

The economy is devastated, and more than 2.4 million South Sudanes live as refugees in neighbouring countries that include Uganda, Ethiopia, and Sudan.

Ethiopia’s rate of 2.4 million new internally displaced people in 2018 far exceeded Syria’s. Reformist Abiy's aggressive reform agenda has won praise, but shaking up Ethiopia's government risks exacerbating several long-simmering ethnic rivalries.

Boko Haram offers relatively better life for some women than north Nigerian society. Many women have looked to religion for a space of relative autonomy, generating the apparent paradox of female support for sharia law

Islamic State in West Africa digs wells, provides some basic healthcare, has a judicial system in and a tax regime that’s generally accepted – creating an environment where people can do business.

The “predator” coverage portrays African countries as “set to burn as debt soars”. The “friend” image is portrayed through coverage of officials rejecting this view.

Nnedi Okorafor in “Lagoon” and Tade Thompson in “Rosewater” take us to Nigeria to illuminate the “what-ifs” of that society for Nigerians themselves.

The economy is devastated, and more than 2.4 million South Sudanes live as refugees in neighbouring countries that include Uganda, Ethiopia, and Sudan.

Nnedi Okorafor in “Lagoon” and Tade Thompson in “Rosewater” take us to Nigeria to illuminate the “what-ifs” of that society for Nigerians themselves.

It is packed full of fascinating terms from across the continent, from a variety of languages including Kiswahili, Chibemba, Kikuyu, Wolof, isiZulu and isiXhosa.

Whether it is translators being leaned on for “simplified” accounts or bad-faith corporate social responsibility purporting to involve a marathon trip from Kenya to South Africa in a wheelchair, cautionary lessons abound.

Boko Haram offers relatively better life for some women than north Nigerian society. Many women have looked to religion for a space of relative autonomy, generating the apparent paradox of female support for sharia law

Africa needs to heal the psychological effects of “centuries of alienation and enslavement” to regain self-esteem and self-respect.