Last Friday, May 3, was World Press Freedom Day. Perhaps you may have missed it? On one hand, the Press Freedom Day parades, or sales, are far and few between. On the other hand, even the press doesn’t seem to care much about its colleagues’ freedom and well-being. Take the case of Ethiopian journalist, Reeyot […]
A large part of the challenge for Italians to get used to a black Cabinet Minister is the role Italian media plays. They're particularly bad when it comes to race.
Who would guess that a little over a decade ago Africa was mostly described as "the hopeless continent"?
Malian writer, activist, former member of government Aminata Traoré is unwelcome in France, and, thanks to the ‘open borders’ of the Schengen Area, she is persona non grata in pretty much all of Europe. Another dialogue is possible? Not if you irk les autorités. Traoré was invited to speak at a conference last week, in […]
The ways in which Nelson Mandela’s image as a referent of South Africa's recent past has been appropriated, signified and transformed into material form as commemoration.
After years of being frozen out by Bingu wa Mutharika’s administration, President Joyce Banda has restored the IMF to the top table of Malawian policy-making and pushed through a sweeping reforms at their behest.
Nigeria's ruling class, when faced with criticism, always go for censorship, to silence their critics.
We were wrong. Some Africans do like Margaret Thatcher. Here's a gallery of 10 of them.
With this, I am bringing back Weekend Special for all those things we don't have the time to blog about or say more than the required 140 characters on Twitter.
Thatcher’s energetic opposition to sanctions and support for right wing forces prolonged the state of violence across the breadth of Southern Africa.
Al Jazeera is planning a French language version of its news network. That means, government funded France 24 will be in direct competition with it for viewership in Africa and amongst the continent's French speaking diaspora.
The story of Happy Sindane, the lost white boy, who put a lie to South Africa's rainbow shibboleths.
Why when African leaders meet Barack Obama, they are received in groups (unlike all other heads of state) and rarely get to speak?
What has Steve Bantu Biko got to do with partying and spring in the Netherlands?
The trouble with the official Dutch commemoration of the abolition of slavery. It leaves out the descendants of victims altogether.
Also, dispelling the myth that all Arab men systematically oppress and victimize Arab women.
On Sunday, March 17, a day after the Constitutional Referendum, Zimbabwe arrested Beatrice Mtetwa, leading human rights lawyer and Board member of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights. Mtetwa had been arrested for the ‘crime’ of asking the whereabouts of a client. The State refers to that as “obstructing or defeating the course of justice.” […]
To my ear Achebe’s voice is always measured even at its most defiant.
France's intervention never offered a real solution to any of Mali's problems, but created a set of problems to the ones this country would otherwise have faced.
Why Goodluck Jonathan's presidential pardons are a bad idea.