NPR News -Africa

March 10, 202512:10 AM ET
Enlarge this imageIn 2012, playwright Athol Fugard, who was then 80, said, “I have a greater sense of adventure at this moment in my life than I ever had in the past.” Fugard is pictured above in February 1985.

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In 2012, playwright Athol Fugard, who was then 80, said, “I have a greater sense of adventure at this moment in my life than I ever had in the past.” Fugard is pictured above in February 1985.

John Minihan/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

When apartheid ended, and Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa, Athol Fugard thought his life as a playwright was over, he told NPR in 2015.
“I sincerely believe that I was going to be South Africa’s first literary redundancy,” Fugard said. “But as it is, South Africa caught me by surprise again and just said, ‘no, you got to keep writing, man. There are still ..

March 9, 20258:03 AM ET

A new report describes the Sahel region of Africa, a million mile band that runs through Mauritania to Sudan, as “the epicenter of global terrorism.” We examine those findings.

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March 7, 20255:45 PM ET

At least 9,000 people have been forcefully evicted from a community in Lagos. Like many waterfront communities across the city, it has faced threats and been targeted by real estate developers.

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March 7, 20255:23 PM ET
A woman gestures in front of her demolished house in Otodo-Gbame waterfront in Lagos, Nigeria. Saturday, March 18, 2017. Slums and shantytowns are often targeted in rampant demolitions across Africa’s most populous country

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LAGOS, Nigeria—A century old riverside community of more than 9,000 people located in Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos, was demolished on Friday and residents were forcefully evicted.
Dozens of Lagos state officials, as well as police and young men known locally as “area boys” armed with machetes and clubs entered the community of Ilaje-Otumara in the early hours of Friday, forcing thousands to flee with their belongings, as bulldozers rolled through homes, businesses and places of worship.
NPR witnessed state government officials and police watching on as residents were beaten and attacked and forced to leave without their possessions. Reporters covering the demolitio..

March 7, 20254:45 PM ET

In many parts of the world skin whitening is a major industry, but women in Nigeria have a particular fondness for creams and lotions that promise to lighten their skin. By one estimate, over 77% of women in the country have used such products. We go to Nigeria and learn that the effects of skin whiteners can be severe and many people who use them are unable to stop.

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March 6, 20254:10 AM ET

Government officials in the small African country of Lesotho were shocked by President Trump’s dismissive remarks that “nobody has ever heard” of their country.

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March 5, 20255:19 PM ET
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JOHANNESBURG — In his Tuesday night address to Congress, President Trump defended his administration’s humanitarian aid cuts to countries around the globe, including one nation he joked “nobody has ever heard of.”
It is the southern African nation of Lesotho.
Politics 6 takeaways from Trump’s pointedly partisan address to CongressThe country’s foreign minister, Lejone Mpotjoane, told NPR it was “quite shocking for the head of state to make such a remark.”
“The government of the United States has an embassy in Maseru [Lesotho’s capital],” Mpotjoane said on Wednesday, adding that the two countries have had “a long cooperation.”
He invited Trump to visit the country.
At least one person attending the address on Capitol Hill could likely place the tiny country on a map: Elon Musk, Trump’s South African-born adviser, who has been instrumental in dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development. Just last fall, Lesotho’s prime minister met ..

March 3, 20256:08 PM ET

The average person in Lagos, Nigeria, spends over six hours of their day in traffic. NPR battles the chaos of a Lagos gridlock to find out if new Chinese-backed rails have made a difference.

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February 28, 20252:59 PM ET
A Palestinian man serving 18 life sentences for a pair of bus bombings in 2004 speaks to NPR days after his release. And, the average person in Lagos, Nigeria, spends over 6 hours of their day in traffic – have new Chinese-backed railways made a difference?

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Enlarge this imageEyad Abu Shkheidem in his family’s home in Hebron.

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Eyad Abu Shkheidem in his family’s home in Hebron.

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February 17, 20254:05 AM ET

Rwandan-backed rebels have taken over a second city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as they continue to seize territory under the watching and passive eyes of the international community.

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