The pan-African magazine of choice since 2009
A very colorful character, former Ghanaian president, Jerry John Rawlings, was given a four-day national funeral at the end of January 2021. In death as in life, controversy followed him: One of his close friends revealed in an emotional tribute at the funeral that Rawlings had told him only weeks before, after his mother’s death, …
The use of Internet-based “cryptocurrencies” such as bitcoin, which in the West are considered too risky for general use, is growing in African countries such as Nigeria, as people find them a convenient way to transfer money across borders. Alexis Akwagyiram and Tom Wilson report. A few months ago, Abolaji Odunjo made a fundamental change …
There’s something seemingly novel about a song from South Africa going viral to the extent that the 2019 house-music song “Jerusalema” has done in 2020. The song is performed by musician and producer Master KG and vocalist Nomcebo Zikode. Apart from the song’s omnipresence on the sound systems of neighborhoods all across South Africa, it …
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s political slogan is “medemer” – or “coming together”. But some analysts say reforms meant to unify Ethiopia have inflamed simmering ethnic and political divisions and risk unravelling Africa’s second most populous nation. Katharine Houreld and Maggie Fick report. Now Ethiopian unity faces its severest test yet: since Nov. 4, the …
Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta doesn’t appear to have a clear chosen successor, and the unsolved killing of an election official shows that the country could be caught in another cycle of violence as Election 2022 jitters set in. Carey Baraka reports. Days before Kenya’s general elections in July 2017, the bodies of Chris Msando, the …
For the first time in Africa’s postcolonial history, a comprehensive factbook that seeks to bust the key myths that Western historians and writers have created about the continent has been published. The Africa Factbook, a 1,200-page tome, was produced by the Institute of African Knowledge in Harare, Zimbabwe, in partnership with the African Union Commission, …
After nearly 10 years of work, Ethiopia has almost finished building its massive Grand Renaissance Dam on the Nile River, and is beginning to fill its 74-billion-cubic-meter reservoir. But Sudan and especially Egypt, which have historically controlled the lion’s share of the Nile’s waters, have refused to come to an agreement with Ethiopia, the source …
The United States’ first Black president, Barack Obama, gave an emotional and inspiring speech at the funeral of Rep. John Lewis, an icon of the civil-rights movement, in Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church on July 30. Obama said he owed a great debt to Lewis, whom he described as a “man of unbreakable perseverance” and …
Oil drilling in Angola came to an unprecedented halt in April, as plummeting prices caused major foreign companies to suspend production. The loss of revenues in Africa’s second-largest oil producer could thwart President Joao Lourenço’s plans to reduce severe poverty among the country’s 32 million people. Noah Browning and Libby George report. The coronavirus pandemic …
Caught in the Trump-China feud, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the leader of the World Health Organization, is under siege. The U.S. offensive against the WHO has shaken its director-general at an already difficult time for the United Nations-affiliated health agency as it seeks to coordinate a global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO insiders and diplomats …