Africa Is a Country

Viva Tanzania

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Viva Tanzania

By
Sean Jacobs

For all the gross, lurid news stories or the films you see about fatal  violence against, and neglect of people suffering from albinism in East Africa, this one about Tanzanians electing an albino, Salum Khalfani Barwani, to Parliament, is good news.  Barwani, an opposition MP, will represent a rural constituency.  (BTW, a well-known rapper, Sugu, was also elected to Parliament in the elections in which the majority party’s parliamentary shrunk by over 50 seats.)

CNN, BBC and Afronline.

Image: Pieter Hugo, “Portraits of people with albinism” (2003)

Further Reading

The grift tank

In Washington’s think tank ecosystem, Africa is treated as a low-stakes arena where performance substitutes for knowledge. The result: unqualified actors shaping policy on behalf of militarists, lobbyists, and frauds.

Kagame’s hidden war

Rwanda’s military deployments in Mozambique and its shadowy ties to M23 rebels in eastern Congo are not isolated interventions, rather part of a broader geopolitical strategy to expand its regional influence.

After the coups

Without institutional foundations or credible partners, the Alliance of Sahel States risks becoming the latest failed experiment in regional integration.

Whose game is remembered?

The Women’s Africa Cup of Nations opens in Morocco amid growing calls to preserve the stories, players, and legacy of the women who built the game—before they’re lost to erasure and algorithm alike.

Sovereignty or supremacy?

As far-right politics gain traction across the globe, some South Africans are embracing Trumpism not out of policy conviction but out of a deeper, more troubling identification.