Think tanks love to paint maps, often accompanied by short descriptions of the different crises a country is facing — short, broad strokes for clarity’s sake. Except, of course, that these different shades of blue obscure realities that, in typical jargon, are defined as ‘non-violent’ crises. The map above shows where in Sub-Saharan Africa violent conflicts happened in 2011. Thus, for example, the xenophobic attacks against foreigners in South Africa will appear on the map but the country’s crisis of deep-rooted poverty will not.

What caught my eye on this map though was the little blue dot west of the DRC: it made me read up on Cabinda, the Angolan enclave, which seems to have dropped off the international press’s radar again since the deadly ambush on the Togolese football team there in 2010. Searching the websites of the BBC, the NYT and The Guardian all returned the same result: each had one article in January 2011 asking whether Sudan’s split would herald a balkanization of Africa and bring independence to Somaliland, Western Sahara and…Cabinda. (Nothing on CNN or Al Jazeera nor in El País, Die Zeit, Jeune Afrique or Le Monde.) Which is surprising, considering the Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research report:

Further Reading

The cost of care

In Africa’s migration economy, women’s labor fuels households abroad while their own needs are sidelined at home. What does freedom look like when care itself becomes a form of exile?

The memory keepers

A new documentary follows two women’s mission to decolonize Nairobi’s libraries, revealing how good intentions collide with bureaucracy, donor politics, and the ghosts of colonialism.

Making films against amnesia

The director of the Oscar-nominated film ‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’ reflects on imperial violence, corporate warfare, and how cinema can disrupt the official record—and help us remember differently.

From Nkrumah to neoliberalism

On the podcast, we explore: How did Ghana go from Nkrumah’s radical vision to neoliberal entrenchment? Gyekye Tanoh unpacks the forces behind its political stability, deepening inequality, and the fractures shaping its future.

The Visa farce

The South African government’s rush to clear visa applications has led to mass rejections, bureaucratic chaos, and an overloaded appeals system—leaving thousands in limbo.