· November, 2008

Stories about Sub-Saharan Africa from November, 2008

Waxal: First African Blog Award for Journalists

The first Waxal Blogging Africa Awards have been just launched. All African bloggers who work as journalists can register. The deadline is the 7th of December 2008. The individual winners - one for an English blog, one for a French blog - and one for a blogging organization, will be rewarded with a cash prize, and all best blogs will be promoted by the organizers through various channels.

30 November 2008

Mozambique: Different views of condom use in Africa

In a country which struggles to combat AIDS, twenty million condoms are distributed every year. Considering that at least 4 million Mozambican men are sexually active from a population of 17.4 million inhabitants, this makes a personal allowance of five condoms for the whole year. Surprisingly, kids are the most faithful users of them.

29 November 2008

AIDS awareness through video

HIV/AIDS is a World-Wide pandemic which has been decimating the lives of men, women and children for more than 20 years. Today we bring you videos that discuss HIV/AIDS in its different aspects: how to live with it, protect yourself from it and how to raise awareness to the cause. From Cameroun, an award winning song about AIDS, from Argentina, a campaign that is not afraid to tell youth what a condom is and how to use it, and from Beijing, a video on discrimination, living with it AIDS and the strength to make the condition public.

27 November 2008

Angola: Children as young as 6 face accusations of witchcraft

Children as young as six years old have been accused of witchcraft and abandoned, mistreated, tortured and even killed in Angola, where such accusations are deemed valid. Clara Onofre investigates this practice advised by members of illegal churches and seemingly not related to local peoples' historical traditions.

26 November 2008

Burkina Faso: Fertility and Underdevelopment

According to new official statistics, Burkina Faso's population is growing [Fr] at an annual rate of 3.1%.  Quophybloguer writes [Fr]: “Will the government have the courage to officially limit births in...

25 November 2008

Kenya: Save The Mau Forest!

Kenya's Mau Forest is one of the largest indigenous forests in East Africa, and it is under threat from slashing, burning (for charcoal) and illegal settlement. Some background on the...

24 November 2008

Madagascar: South Korean Land Deal Sparks Controversy

South Korea has just leased half of all the arable land in Madagascar according to the Financial Times. This has stirred quite a debate in the Malagasy blogosphere about land sovereignty and economic development. It is still unclear whether the land deal has actually been signed by both parties. Meanwhile, bloggers are arguing whether this sort of deal should be considered “neo-colonialism”.

23 November 2008

MENA: How to deal with Somali piracy?

Last week a Saudi supertanker was hijacked by Somali pirates off the coast of Kenya, making it the largest ship ever to have been seized in this way. The problem of Somali piracy is growing; in this post we hear bloggers' reactions from around the Middle East.

22 November 2008

About our Sub-Saharan Africa coverage

Zita Zage
Zita Zage is the Anglophone Africa Editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.

Jean Sovon
Jean Sovon is the Francophone Africa. Editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.