Often Misunderstood, an African Tradition Comes Alive at Benin Festival

Jan­u­ary 2nd to 10th marked the fifth edi­tion of the Inter­na­tion­al Fes­ti­val of Voodoo Cul­ture, Arts, and Civ­i­liza­tion that was held in the African nation of Benin. The theme of the Fes­ti­val was: “Restor­ing Ben­in’s her­itage. Research on the ori­gin and trans­mis­sion of knowl­edge in Por­to-Novo’.  The 2022 Fes­ti­val was an oppor­tu­ni­ty to present to…

Covid-19 Spared Africa — A Reality American Media Won’t Admit

In jour­nal­ism, there is such a thing as agen­­da-set­t­ing – how the mass media — news­pa­pers, radio, and TV, and the plu­ral­i­ty of online chan­nels — pri­or­i­tize the news for pub­li­ca­tion. The idea that some news sto­ries would take prece­dence over oth­ers gained cre­dence with thought lead­ers, Maxwell McCombs and Don­ald Shaw, dur­ing the 1968…

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Russian Trolls in Ghana, Nigeria — What CNN Got Right and Wrong

If you are an avid con­sumer of inter­na­tion­al news you may have seen the sto­ry that Cable News Net­work aka CNN ran recent­ly about Russ­ian trolls in Ghana and Nige­ria. This sto­ry is espe­cial­ly rel­e­vant for the Unit­ed States gov­ern­ment as it relates to the issue of med­dling in its elec­tions by for­eign enti­ties. But…

CAF Elects New President—The African Continent Rejoices

The Con­fed­er­a­tion of African Foot­ball (CAF), respon­si­ble for orga­niz­ing the African Cup of Nations, elect­ed a new pres­i­dent on March 16 at the Africa Union head­quar­ters in Ethiopia.  He is Madagascar’s Vice-Pres­i­­dent of the Sen­ate, Ahmad Ahmad.  Ahmad, 57, was also the leader of the Mada­gas­car Foot­ball Fed­er­a­tion. He defeat­ed long­time CAF Pres­i­dent, Issa Hayatou…

Trump Administration Cuts Aid to Africa

This week we learned the Trump admin­is­tra­tion has pro­posed a bud­get that would cut for­eign aid dras­ti­cal­ly. The issues, facts, and impli­ca­tions of deci­sions made under the admin­is­tra­tion are inescapable. The State Depart­ment, includ­ing the Unit­ed States Agency for Inter­na­tion­al Devel­op­ment (USAID), would be great­ly impact­ed by these cuts. If you are not aware, the State…

Cameroonians in Colorado Rally Against President Paul Biya

Since Novem­ber 2016, the African nation of Cameroon has been embroiled in civ­il unrest marked by demon­stra­tions and boy­cotts against the Fran­­coph­o­ne-dom­i­­nat­ed gov­ern­ment of Pres­i­dent Paul Biya. Recent news reports point to many civil­ian deaths through police action, while oth­ers, includ­ing jour­nal­ists, lawyers, and civ­il soci­ety lead­ers, have been arrest­ed and placed on tri­al. The Cameroon administration…

Experts Warn of Civil War in Cameroon

Beyond aca­d­e­m­ic and diplo­mat­ic cir­cles, many have not heard of the Inter­na­tion­al Cri­sis Group or Cri­sis Group. The Brus­sels-based non-gov­­ern­­men­­tal orga­ni­za­tion, tracks and warns of the poten­tial of con­flict in nations around the world. The group is high­ly respect­ed and often quot­ed in news reports due to their thor­ough research. Just before the Arab Spring…