Playing Soccer in $1.50 Sandals That Even Gucci Wants to Copy
In Ivory Coast, lêkê are the preferred footwear for amateur games and almost everything else.
Cameroon Opposition Calls for Single Candidate to Face Biya in Next Election
Yaounde, Cameroon — Leaders of Cameroon’s main opposition party say they are negotiating with more than 30 opposition leaders to present a single candidate in the next election, should 91-year-old President Paul Biya be incapacitated by ill health. The opposition reacted after Biya, who has ruled for more than four decades, made no mention of running…
Congo’s president is declared winner of election that opposition wants redone
The results of the Dec. 20 election were announced amid calls from the opposition and civil society groups for the vote to be rerun due to logistical problems they said had undermined the balloting. (Image credit: Mosa’ab Elshamy/AP)
French Departure From Niger Underscores Fading Influence
PARIS — France closes 2023 with a diminished presence in Africa’s restive Sahel region, after withdrawing troops from three once-staunch allied countries collectively fighting an Islamist insurgency, and seeing its influence increasingly replaced by other powers, including Russia. The last French soldiers left Niger earlier this month, with Paris taking the unusual step of closing its…
Here’s what Nelson Mandela ate on Christmas, according to his former chef
It’s been 10 years since South Africa’s first democratically elected president died. Nelson Mandela’s former chef describes how how the anti-apartheid icon liked to spend Christmas Day.
Africa’s flourishing art scene is a smash hit at Art X
It’s Art Month in Nigeria — and a highlight is the celebration of art that is Art X, a wide-ranging fair that highlights “Black portraiture” as well as other creations from the continent. (Image credit: Manny Jefferson for NPR)
Liberia’s President Concedes Election Defeat in a Knife-Edge Vote
President George Weah, a former soccer star whose administration had weathered accusations of corruption, announced that he had lost his bid for re-election to Joseph Boakai, a 78-year-old former vice president.
The Director of ‘Savior Complex’ on the Perils of ‘White Saviorism’
Jackie Jesko spoke about the subject of her HBO docu-series, a Christian missionary accused of playing doctor with the lives of Ugandan children.
Examining the future of the Wagner Group in Africa
What will the reported death of mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mean for the Wagner operation in Africa, and the countries on that continent where they operate?