South Africa Elections Stir Up Corruption Controversy

South African leader, Cyril Rhamaphosa, sworn into office Sat­ur­day, May 25, is count­ing him­self a lucky man after lead­ing the embat­tled African Nation­al Con­gress (ANC) par­ty to a major­i­ty win in the May 8 Gen­er­al Elec­tions. The ANC, the par­ty of Nel­son Man­dela, con­tin­ues to face alle­ga­tions of cor­rup­tion that plagued the par­ty for many…

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The BBC Rushes to Remind Us about Coups in Africa

Coups in Africa: I always thought the char­ac­ter­i­za­tion of the African con­ti­nent, some­times by many smart, well-mean­ing jour­nal­ists, and oth­ers, biased in their analy­sis, makes the con­ti­nent appear like hell, the worst place to live in the eyes of the world. Nar­ra­tives fol­low­ing the recent coup and ouster of long-time Sudanese leader Omar al Bashir help…

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Rwandan Genocide Remembrance – Lead Africa Headlines

Fight­ing in Libya Threat­ens Secu­ri­ty in Entire North­ern Africa Region  In Libya, the news is not about progress in the coun­try – it’s about insta­bil­i­ty there which helped push Amer­i­can troops out, albeit tem­porar­i­ly. It’s not clear where the U.S. troops, escap­ing the intense fight­ing in Tripoli, are relo­cat­ing to. Eight years after for­mer Libyan leader…

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Protests in Algeria Lead African News

Alge­ria, in North­ern Africa, is con­sid­ered a hotbed of the so-called Arab Spring move­ment. The Arab Spring which came alive in the Decem­ber 2010 peri­od swept away legit­i­mate, yet author­i­tar­i­an gov­ern­ments in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen in a rev­o­lu­tion by civ­il soci­ety move­ments. The move­ments are believed to have laid the foun­da­tion for civ­il wars…

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Elections in South Africa — A Media Review

Edi­tor’s Note: On May 8 South Africans will go to the polls to elect par­lia­men­tar­i­ans and provin­cial leg­is­la­tors in the coun­try’s Gen­er­al Elec­tions. In this analy­sis, Uni­qua Smith gives us a pre­view of the elec­tions by tak­ing a look at the major par­ties involved, the issues on the bal­lot, as well as how the election…

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Tropical Cyclone Idai — Floods in Mozambique Lead the News

The nation of Mozam­bique in South-East­­ern Africa suf­fered cat­a­stroph­ic dam­ages fol­low­ing what is being described as a Trop­i­cal Cyclone Idai start­ing on March 4.  The storms inten­si­fied there­after, con­tin­u­ing into the week of March 18, leav­ing many deaths and plen­ty of destruc­tion, includ­ing sub­merged build­ings. Accord­ing to News24, “Trop­i­cal cyclone Idai has made head­lines across…

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Questions about Media Coverage of Ethiopian Airlines Jet Crash

A few hours after a Boe­ing 737 Max 8 jet, owned and oper­at­ed by Ethiopi­an Air­lines crashed short­ly after take-off from Addis Aba­ba, the Ethiopi­an cap­i­tal, on March 10, the sto­ry about what hap­pened quick­ly swung from the many vic­tims who lost their lives in the acci­dent to ques­tions such as what ver­sion of aircraft…

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NBC News Story On Central African Republic Fuels Afro-Pessimism

I stum­bled upon this sto­ry about the chaot­ic sit­u­a­tion in the Cen­tral African Repub­lic (CAR) on TV Newswer, a web­site focused on things that are going on in the media and telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions land­scape.  Then I turned to the report­ing that cor­re­spon­dent Cyn­thia McFad­den had pro­duced for NBC News per­tain­ing to her recent trip to the…

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Reports of Ethiopian Airlines Crash Leads the News Globally

Reports that an Ethiopi­an Air­lines air­craft, a Boe­ing 737 MAX 8 crashed Sun­day, March 10 en route from Addis Aba­ba, the Ethiopi­an cap­i­tal to Nairo­bi, Kenya woke me up ear­ly in the morn­ing. I received two alerts on my smart­phone ear­ly in the morn­ing, from the New York Times, as well as from Reuters, which…

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Beware Of Africa Misinformation, Says Africa Agenda Director

Dur­ing the 36th Annu­al Black World Con­fer­ence at Met­ro­pol­i­tan State Uni­ver­si­ty of Den­ver on Feb­ru­ary 13, Africa Agen­da founder George Bamu spoke about African Pol­i­tics and the West­ern Media. It’s a sub­ject that the orga­ni­za­tion and its lead­ers hold near and dear to heart. Africa Agen­da, a U.S. 501c (3) non-prof­it was found­ed with a mission…

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