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

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/08/29/world/29angola‑1/29angola-1-moth.jpg 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…

In Algeria, Macron Seeks to Reshape Traumatic Ties With France

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/08/28/world/28algiers-macron‑1/28algiers-macron-1-moth.jpg On a three-day vis­it, the French pres­i­dent said he was seek­ing “truth and acknowl­edg­ment” over the war and colo­nial­ism. ALGIERS — Past the graves and elab­o­rate Chris­t­ian mau­soleums of Saint Eugene Ceme­tery, Pres­i­dent Emmanuel Macron of France made his way, before lay­ing a wreath at a mon­u­ment to those “who died for France.” For…

‘Artistic Awakening’ in Benin as Return of Royal Artifacts Attracts Huge Crowds

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/08/21/world/21benin-artifacts-dispatch1/21benin-artifacts-dispatch1-moth-v2.jpg As more loot­ed art comes back to Africa, coun­tries have wres­tled with the right way to dis­play it. That 200,000 peo­ple have lined up for a show sug­gests Benin has found an answer. COTONOU, Benin — For cen­turies, his ances­tors had ruled over a pow­er­ful king­dom in what is now Benin, but the first…

How Countries Use Food to Win Friends and Influence People

https://foreignpolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/1‑thailand-restaurant-gastronativism-GettyImages-1231119003.jpgThe spa­cious ground-floor space in the for­mer res­i­dence of the Span­ish ambas­sador in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., was packed with peo­ple. All around the walls, large, col­or­ful, artis­tic pic­tures of Span­ish ingre­di­ents and spe­cial­ties revealed what the event was all about: Span­ish food. The audi­ence was com­posed of pro­fes­sion­als and enthu­si­asts who had come to hear a…

How Raila Odinga Lost His Stronghold, Then Kenya’s Presidency

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/08/19/world/19kenya-luo‑2/19kenya-luo-2-moth.jpg In his fifth, and pos­si­bly last, bid for pres­i­dent, Raila Odin­ga failed to enthuse a cru­cial bloc of vot­ers in his own back­yard that would have cat­a­pult­ed him to the top job. KISUMU, Kenya — For decades, Kenya’s vet­er­an oppo­si­tion politi­cian Raila Odin­ga has been the chief polit­i­cal pow­er bro­ker in the west­ern coun­ties around…

Ivory Coast, a Big Cocoa Exporter, Tries to Move Up the Ladder

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/08/05/world/00ivory-coast-chocolate-promo/merlin_208982373_5e41dd4d-86b6-4a7e-bca6-7bd9ad2a099a-moth.jpgA new gen­er­a­tion of Ivory Coast choco­latiers is striv­ing to change an indus­try that has long left cocoa farm­ers in pover­ty. GRAND-BASSAM, Ivory Coast — The work­er care­ful­ly peeled the husks from the cocoa beans to keep them from break­ing, then tipped them into a met­al tray that a col­league slid into an oven. The…

Chad’s Military Junta and Rebels Sign a Deal, but a Main Player Is Missing

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/08/08/world/08chad/08chad-moth.jpg The accord paves the way for nation­al rec­on­cil­i­a­tion talks and demo­c­ra­t­ic elec­tions. How­ev­er, it was snubbed by the main rebel group respon­si­ble for the death of Chad’s pre­vi­ous leader. DAKAR, Sene­gal — Chad’s mil­i­tary gov­ern­ment and more than 40 rebel groups signed a cease-fire agree­ment on Mon­day in Qatar, paving the way for reconciliation…

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,…

Presidents Ramaphosa and Ouattara ‘pleased’ to see Ukrainian grains deal signed

The Pres­i­dent of Ivory Coast, Alas­sane Ouat­tara, vis­it­ed South Africa on Friday.
Out­tara was wel­comed by his South African coun­ter­part, Pres­i­dent Cyril Ramaphosa in the cap­i­tal, Pretoria.
The vis­it coin­cid­ed with a UN and Turkey-bro­kered agree­ment to allow Ukraine and Rus­sia to export grain and fertilizers. 

“It has tak­en much too long, in my view, because that con­flict has put a stop to the import or expor­tat of grain, fer­til­iz­ers and oth­er food­stuffs like wheat to var­i­ous oth­er parts of the world. And we are there­fore pleased. That this may indeed in the end become a real­i­ty. Would this be seen as sig­nalling some­thing that could amount to the end of that con­flict? I would like to believe that, yes”, said South African Pres­i­dent Cyril Ramaphosa. 
Refer­ring to Mali, the Ivo­rian pres­i­dent reject­ed ear­li­er sug­ges­tions that his coun­try was inter­fer­ing in its neighbour. 
The accu­sa­tions were linked to the deten­tion of a group of Ivo­rian sol­diers accused of being mercenaries.
” Ivory Coast can­not afford to attempt to desta­bi­lize any coun­try and espe­cial­ly not a neigh­bor­ing coun­try (such as Mali). And they are the same peo­ples, the same pop­u­la­tion. The rela­tion­ships are close, are very close. We use the same cur­ren­cy, we use the same legal frame­work, etc. It (Mali) is a friend­ly coun­try and broth­er and sis­ter pop­u­la­tions. There­fore, there isn’t any ques­tion about us engag­ing in any attempt to desta­bi­lize”, reas­sured Alas­sane Ouat­tara, Pres­i­dent of Ivory Coast.
Dur­ing the vis­it to South Africa, the two pres­i­dents signed a num­ber of agree­ments and Ouat­tara addressed the South Africa — Ivory Coast Busi­ness Forum.

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…