Growing up in southern Africa in the early 2000s meant that you couldn’t escape HIV/AIDS. Apart from the terrifying number of people who died during those years, the messages that AIDS kills were ubiquitous.
Burundi has been in political turmoil ever since president Pierre Nkurunziza ran for a third term in 2015, flouting the country’s constitution. Nkurunuziza got his third term, but the country was plunged into crisis just as it was recovering from a thirteen-year civil war.
Access to basic healthcare is already out of reach for so many in poor countries, now a new study reveals that the medicines people are able to get hold of may be making them sicker.
Zimbabwe has a new president.
The stuffed lions guarding Robert Mugabe’s statehouse are well known. They are also tattered and balding, and it is unlikely that interim president Emmerson Mnangagwa will keep them once he moves in. On Friday (Nov. 24), Zimbabwe will have a new president for the first time in nearly four decades, meaning Mugabe will have to find a new place to live. As a homeless autocrat, he will find himself among interesting company.
2017 has been a tough year for Africa’s strongmen: Yahya Jammeh was kicked out, José Eduardo dos Santos stepped down, and Robert Mugabe was pushed off. And there’s still six weeks to go.
Robert Mugabe has resigned as president of Zimbabwe after 37 years in power.
Robert Mugabe called a cabinet meeting on Nov. 21 and less than a quarter of his ministers showed up, signaling the waning power the longtime leader is desperately clinging to.
Robert Mugabe isn’t going anywhere.
Robert Mugabe has been fired as head of the Zanu-PF party, marking the end of his 37-year grip on power in Zimbabwe, and even longer at the helm of the ruling party. Mugabe was fired on Sunday (Nov. 19) and his wife, first lady Grace Mugabe, was expelled from the party for inciting division.
Thousands of Zimbabweans demonstrated against president Robert Mugabe today (Nov. 18), showcasing a freedom they’ve not enjoyed in years. Protestors marched from Harare’s townships and suburbs toward Mugabe’s home to deliver their message in person: It is it time to go.
Johannesburg
Slight of frame with large rimmed glasses, Robert Mugabe may not look like a typical authoritarian, except, perhaps, for his insistence on shaving his moustache in the style of Adolf Hitler. And yet, the former teacher-turned liberator has loomed over Zimbabwe for so long it has become almost impossible to imagine anyone else in his place, even though that has been a dream for years for so many.
As tanks rolled through downtown Harare on Nov. 15, the army that has taken over the state broadcaster swore that Zimbabwe was not experiencing a coup. Yet, images emerging from downtown Harare show that the military is out in full force. While reports of explosions were heard from the previous night, there have been no reported incidents of violence.
Africa’s largest television platform has pulled a talk show after it asked questions about police brutality and media freedom in Zambia.
Army tanks have been seen rolling towards Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, leading to speculation this could be beginning of the end of president Robert Mugabe’s 37-year rule.
South Africa may never be able to make good on its liberation promise of free education for all. On Nov. 13, a commission appointed to investigate the possibility of free higher education confirmed it had found it was not feasible (pdf), an outcome that may see the country’s campuses erupt in protest again.
South Africa’s small literary market has been lifted by one of the country’s largest political scandals. A new book detailing the “cancerous cabal” that has bankrolled Jacob Zuma’s presidency was bound to cause a sensation, but attempts to have the book banned have made it a rapid best-seller and possibly the country’s most bootlegged book.
Johannesburg
James Gubb’s protest art may have cost him dearly, but he says it was all worth it to send the Gupta family a strong, succinct message.
Apartheid was a crime against humanity and yet its symbols are still prevalent in South Africa, even as so many wounds from that era are still raw. The old South African flag, one of the regime’s proudest symbols, was seen flapping in the wind this week, sparking a debate on the flag’s painful history and its place in South Africa today.
Last year, with just a few days to go before the first Art X Lagos fair, only 800 people had registered to attend what was to become West Africa’s premier art fair. This year, 4,000 people have already registered and organizer Tokini Peterside is relying on Nigerians’ notorious love of last-minute planning to top the 5,000 visitors who eventually visited last year’s debut fair.
It’s going to take more than a woke rapper and hashtag campaign to dismantle the colorism that shades ideals of beauty and success in Africa.
There was a higher proportion of black students successfully graduating from South Africa’s universities during apartheid than there is today.
