Angola’s Ruling Party, MPLA, Retains Power in Tightest Election Yet

The Pop­u­lar Move­ment for the Lib­er­a­tion of Ango­la won in the gen­er­al elec­tion with the low­est mar­gin since com­ing to pow­er in 1975. LUANDA, Ango­la — Angola’s rul­ing par­ty on Mon­day was declared the win­ner of the gen­er­al elec­tion, but it was its weak­est show­ing in the five elec­tions that have tak­en place since the country…

William Ruto Wins “Transparent Kenya Elections”

William Ruto was recent­ly declared pres­i­­dent-elect of Kenya, but vic­to­ry did not not come with­out con­tes­ta­tion. For­mer Prime Min­is­ter Raila Odin­ga, the run­n­er-up, is chal­leng­ing the results. Odin­ga received 48.8 % of the votes com­pared to 50.5 % for Ruto.  Accord­ing to the British Broad­cast­ing Cor­po­ra­tion (BBC), Odin­ga referred to the results as “null and void.”…

Liberia National Day Graced by Colo. Political, Community Leaders 

AURORA (Africa News Mat­ters) – On the evening of Sat­ur­day, July 30, natives, friends, and well-wish­ers of the African nation of Liberia filled the cor­ri­dors and ball­room of the Hol­i­day Inn Express in Auro­ra to cel­e­brate 175 years since its inde­pen­dence.  For­mer­ly a US ter­ri­to­ry, Liberia was found­ed by freed Amer­i­can slaves on July 26,…

President Biden Announces U.S. — Africa Leaders Summit

DENVER (Africa News Mat­ters) — There are no doubts about the strate­gic impor­tance of the African con­ti­nent to the world’s super­pow­ers. Just as Rus­sia, Chi­na, and India have upped the ante in rela­tions with African nations, the Unit­ed States, con­sid­ered gross­ly lag­ging in its strate­gic rela­tions with the con­ti­nent, appears ready to change its ways. The Obama…

Volunteers and NGOs Work to Eradicate Gender Violence in Mozambique

The recent achieve­ment of a group of female vol­un­teers opposed to ‘vio­lence against women’ in cen­tral Mozam­bique pro­vides a good chance to exam­ine the coun­try’s gen­der-based vio­lence prob­lem in greater depth. Rec­og­niz­ing the defi­cien­cies and a lack of progress in human rights in Mozam­bique, Mariem Marouani takes a look at the crit­i­cal impact that these…

Mandela Fellows Receive Training at Denver’s Posner Center

DENVER (Africa News Mat­ters) —Since its incep­tion in 2014, the Man­dela Wash­ing­ton Fel­low­ship pro­gram has seen par­tic­i­pa­tion from more than 5000 young African lead­ers from all coun­tries on the con­ti­nent. That’s accord­ing to the Depart­ment of State’s Young African Lead­ers Ini­tia­tive (YALI) pro­gram web­site.  The fel­low­ship pro­gram, a sig­nif­i­cant part of YALI, works in collaboration…

Philadelphia celebrates Juneteenth with block party, parade, film festival, and more — WHYY

It was a fes­tive Sun­day in Philadel­phia, as folks cel­e­brat­ed June­teenth in sev­er­al parts of the city.  In Cen­ter City, the African Amer­i­can Muse­um in Philadel­phia, or AAMP, host­ed a June­teenth block par­ty where hun­dreds of peo­ple jammed to hip hop and dance clas­sics like “The Wob­ble” and Jay‑Z’s “I Just Wan­na Love You.”  The block party…

Belgian King Regrets Colonial ‘Humiliation’ in Landmark Congo Trip

Kin­shasa, Demo­c­ra­t­ic Repub­lic of the Con­go —  King Philippe of Bel­gium, in a his­toric vis­it to Con­go, said on Wednes­day that his coun­try’s rule over the vast cen­tral African coun­try had inflict­ed pain and humil­i­a­tion through a mix­ture of “pater­nal­ism, dis­crim­i­na­tion and racism.”  In a speech out­side Con­go’s par­lia­ment, Philippe ampli­fied remorse he first voiced two years…

Will France’s Africa Policy Hold Up?

Sum­ma­ry Dur­ing his first term, French Pres­i­dent Emmanuel Macron sought to revi­tal­ize his country’s diplo­mat­ic out­reach to coun­tries through­out Africa. Some aspects of this piv­ot were designed to more direct­ly address the lega­cy of French colo­nial­ism in Fran­coph­o­ne coun­tries. He also sensed that the grow­ing stature of non-West­­ern pow­ers like Chi­na has giv­en African counterparts…

UK Plan to Deport Asylum Seekers to Rwanda Considered “Cruel”

Fol­low­ing a recent agree­ment signed between the British and Rwan­dan gov­ern­ments on asy­lum seek­ers in the Unit­ed King­dom, sev­er­al inter­na­tion­al aid agen­cies report that some asy­lum seek­ers in the UK have gone into hid­ing for fear of being sent to Rwan­da. Under the agree­ment, peo­ple sus­pect­ed of ille­gal­ly enter­ing the UK would be flown to…