Africa Is a Country

African borders don’t stop African people

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

African borders don’t stop African people

By
Anakwa Dwamena

Also meet the man who drove Malcolm X around in New York City and introduced him to Fidel Castro.

'Immigration blues' by Patrick Marioné. Via Flickr CC

People always say Africans blame too much on colonialism. But the wave of secessionist (or independence) movements inside already existing states and how borders can’t divide communities, have brought cause to look at the cultural legacies that came with how the continent was divided.

(2) One of the first resolution of the Conference of African Heads of States in the 1960s called for an African News Agency. What role does the media have in regional integration today, as much thought and policy is devoted to the project?

(3) Many migrant women arrive pregnant in Europe. To understand why, involves looking at the routes and trajectories of women migrants as they make their way from particularly Nigeria to Europe.

(4) As Libya turns ever deadlier for migrants headed to Europe, some are going through Algeria, getting trapped. Here is a look at some of their journeys.

(5) Meet the man who drove Malcolm X around in New York City and introduced him to Fidel Castro.

(6) It is the 500 year anniversary of the Protestant reformation, but you most likely won’t hear about the role of African Christians in any of the essays, articles and op-eds about it.

(7) Corruption is tearing apart South Africa’s ruling ANC, and political killings are sadly become one of the uglier manifestations of this.

(8) It took African archeologists and researchers–going beyond the assumption and the limits of western academics beliefs about what was possible of African antiquity–to discover 1,000-year-old colored glass beads in Ile-Ife in what is now Nigeria.

(9) Of course it is in Zimbabwe that Bitcoin has taken hold and is breaking price records.

(10) Watch: Nigerian-American fantasy writer Nnedi Okorafor on imagining the future of Africa through sci-fi stories.

Further Reading

Kenya’s vibe shift

From aesthetic cool to political confusion, a new generation in Kenya is navigating broken promises, borrowed styles, and the blurred lines between irony and ideology.

Africa and the AI race

At summits and in speeches, African leaders promise to harness AI for development. But without investment in power, connectivity, and people, the continent risks replaying old failures in new code.

After the uprising

Years into Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict, the rebellion faces internal fractures, waning support, and military pressure—raising the question of what future, if any, lies ahead for Ambazonian aspirations.

In search of Saadia

Who was Saadia, and why has she been forgotten? A search for one woman’s story opens up bigger questions about race, migration, belonging, and the gaps history leaves behind.

Binti, revisited

More than two decades after its release, Lady Jaydee’s debut album still resonates—offering a window into Tanzanian pop, gender politics, and the sound of a generation coming into its own.

The bones beneath our feet

A powerful new documentary follows Evelyn Wanjugu Kimathi’s personal and political journey to recover her father’s remains—and to reckon with Kenya’s unfinished struggle for land, justice, and historical memory.

What comes after liberation?

In this wide-ranging conversation, the freedom fighter and former Constitutional Court justice Albie Sachs reflects on law, liberation, and the unfinished work of building a just South Africa.

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.