Sickle Cell: The Enemy Within — BBC Africa Eye documentary

At just six months of age, Lea Kilen­ga Bey was diag­nosed with sick­le cell. Her par­ents were told by doc­tors that she wouldn’t reach her teenage years.  Instead, Lea has become a bea­con of hope for sick­le cell suf­fer­ers across Africa, bat­tling both the stig­mas sur­round­ing the dis­ease and the author­i­ties who fail to provide…

What Happened to the ‘Housegirls’? — BBC Africa Eye documentary

Three years ago, BBC Africa Eye’s Nan­cy Kacun­gi­ra report­ed on the plight of three young women, Mer­cy, Scovia and Esther who left their homes to find jobs as domes­tic work­ers. Com­mon­ly referred to as ‘house­girls’, the film chron­i­cled their hard lives and illus­trat­ed how being employed as a domes­tic work­er can some­times lead to mistreatment…

The cost of being an atheist (Documentary) — BBC Africa

On April 5th 2022, Mubarak Bala – the pres­i­dent of the Human­ist Asso­ci­a­tion of Nige­ria – plead guilty to charges attached to blas­phe­my. The sen­tence that fol­lowed caused shock­waves through­out the coun­try, rever­ber­at­ing around the world, and plac­ing the threats to free­dom of expres­sion in Africa’s most pop­u­lous coun­try under new scruti­ny.  BBC’s Yemisi Adegoke…

Headlines Tag Late Tanzanian Hero John Magufuli with Covid-19 Stigma

The news head­lines fol­low­ing the pass­ing of Tan­zan­ian leader John Magu­fuli paint him in a neg­a­tive light. This is not fair.  Magu­fuli became pres­i­dent in 2015 and won reelec­tion to a sec­ond term fol­low­ing the Octo­ber 2020 gen­er­al elec­tions. Tan­za­nia is often hailed as one of the African continent’s most demo­c­ra­t­ic, polit­i­cal­ly sta­ble, and pros­per­ous African nations.…

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…

Nigerian Elections Lead the News

There has been plen­ty of news relat­ing to the African con­ti­nent over the last sev­er­al weeks but Saturday’s pres­i­den­tial elec­tion in Nige­ria is the one event that gar­nered the most head­lines.  The pres­i­den­tial elec­tions were held on Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 23 a week after it was delayed by the country’s Inde­pen­dent Nation­al Elec­tions Com­mis­sion (INEC). The…

In Case You Missed It: 1/3/17 – 1/16/17

This week’s most impor­tant head­lines out of and about Africa. In this week’s news,world lead­ers wrap up the 2017 France-Africa sum­mit in Mali, and embat­tled Gam­bian leader Yayah Jam­meh con­tin­ues to lead the Africa news head­lines around the world. With France-Africa sum­mit 2017, Fran­cois Hol­lande Builds Africa lega­cy This week the 27th France-Africa sum­mit was held…

Coverage of Nigerian Elections Not Fair and Balanced

 “Nobody’s ambi­tion is worth the blood of any Niger­ian,” said out­go­ing Niger­ian Pres­i­dent Good­luck Jonathan in a state­ment con­grat­u­lat­ing his suc­ces­sor, Mohamadou Buhari on his vic­to­ry. “I promised the coun­try free and fair elec­tions. I have kept my word.” The March 28 elec­tion has become one of the most talked-about elec­tions in Africa. This elec­tion was…