The Year of the Woman
2011 was the year of pro-democracy movements and they were largely pushed and pulled by women.
Politics
The Year of Frantz Fanon
What gives Fanon's thinking its force and power is the air of indestructibility and the inexhaustible silo of humanity which it houses, argues Achille Mbembe.
Health care for all
The health news - with major implications for Africans living on the continent - that made the headlines in 2011.
Dances with Samburu
The Samburu of northern Kenya are pastoralists, and they are under attack. According to Survival International,
Helen Zille’s ‘AIDS Gestapo’
The leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance makes offensive remarks about AIDS, then smears her critics, AIDS activists and journalists, as Nazis.
Nigeria's Prophet
By now you’ve probably watched the (British) Channel 4 TV documentary film about Nigeria’s millionaire preachers–the
Swazi Bull
Politics, repression, religion, exile, tradition and mysticism in Swaziland, Southern Africa's last absolute monarchy.
The business of selling beer
SABMiller's new Impala Beer is marketed to poor people who don’t buy other commercially distributed beers because they are too expensive.
The ‘safest option’ in Congo
For all the huffing and puffing in the West about the DRC’s cooked elections — President
The Economist’s “Africa”
The Economist changed its verdict from "Hopeless Africa" to "Africa Rising" in eleven years. But few care about the latest verdict.
The new sheriff
About a week ago, the International Criminal Court announced that Fatou Bensouda would succeed Luis Moreno
Helping Themba
The Dutch ‘Stop Aids Now!’ campaigns have a long tradition of appealing to potential donors in
On Brand Nigeria
A quick read of comments to recent posts defending gay rights, point to how deep-seated and widespread homophobia is in Nigeria.
Something in the water
Africa's best football players come from West Africa. That's just facts.
Congo votes
Over the past week, it was hard to find an article published in a major international
The return of the one party state
The regime of Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, Liberia's first post-conflict president, is increasingly guilty of lack of accountability and abetting corruption.
Pizza Aid
What happens when humanitarian agencies ditch the tried-and-trusted fundraising method of splashing disaster porn across screens and news pages?
Parachute Journalism
Blind clichés, projections and stereotypes masquerading as analysis in Foreign Policy by Karen Leigh, Time Magazine’s correspondent for West Africa.
"You're a South African, what's your story?"
New Zealand is often sold to prospective (mostly white) South African immigrants as “South Africa 30
Mapo do mundo
Remember the Mapping Stereotypes Project and the Afrographique project? (The former maps popular national stereotypes from