Stories about Sub-Saharan Africa from March, 2014
Geo-Mapping Tools and Data Analysis Redefine Reporting in Africa
Oxpeckers Center for Investigative Environmental Journalism and Land Quest investigate environment and development issues.
South Sudan Military Intelligence Chief Denies Attempted Coup
The chief of military intelligence for South Sudan denies that there was an attempted coup there on December 15, 2013. PaanLuel Wel reports: Reports from Juba have it that the head of military intelligence, Gen. Mac Paul Kuol Awar, has rubbished the alleged coup attempt of December 15, 2013. Mac...
Documentary About South Sudan National Football Team's First Coach
Roving Bandit reports about a new documentry titled “Coach Zoran and His African Tigres”: A new documentary, about the first ever manager of the first ever South Sudanese national football team. His name is Zoran, and he swears like a trooper. It's an entertaining story, filmed in 2012 and set...
Should Africa Learn From the Crimea Referendum?
“Is Crimea referendum a good model for Africa?” asks Richard Dowden: Africa’s arbitrary borders, mostly drawn by people who had never set foot in the continent, have always been an obvious target for renegotiation. But Africa’s first rulers, who foresaw chaos and disintegration if the nation states were reconfigured, ruled...
The Challenges Facing Data Journalism in West Africa
Data journalism in West Africa often must work against a lack of data, funds and regulation.
750 Million People Expected to Speak French by 2050
Countering the assertion by John McWhorter at the New republic that learning French is pointless, Pascal Emmanuel Gobry writes on his Forbes blog that French might just be the language of the future: French isn’t mostly spoken by French people, and hasn’t been for a long time now. The language is...
First Tweet from President of Madagascar is the Ultimate Meta Tweet
The newly elected president of Madagascar Hery Rajaonarimampianina created his twitter account on March 23, 2014. Here is his first tweet : It is quite possibly the most meta tweet ever from a head of state. Only media mugol Rupert Murdoch might challenge the level of “metaness” of his first...
3 Ways Mobile Money Transfer Has Changed Kenyans’ Lives
Kenyans on Twitter explain how M-Pesa, a mobile-phone based money transfer and micro-finance service, has changed their lives since the service was introduced seven years ago.
In Defence of Malawian Languages
Following Malawi's government decision to introduce English as a medium of instruction from grade one, Steve Sharra defends local languages and makes the case for multilingualism: Teachers and lecturers in our secondary schools and universities are observing a trend in which students from private schools speak perfect English, but their...
Jose Dos Santos, the 1.8-Billion-Dollar President of Angola
Meanwhile, 70 percent of Angolans live on less than two dollars a day.
Ebola Virus Outbreak Kills 59 in Guinea, Closes in on Conakry
An Ebola outbreak killed at least 59 people in Guinea and a few suspected cases near the Capital Conakry suggest that it may have spread to the Guinean capital. Barbara Krief provides the latest updates [fr]: Au moins huit agents de santé ont été tués à ce jour. En collaboration...
Returning Human Remains is Not an Apology, Says Namibia to Germany
Human remains who were killed during the colonial war (early 20th century) were returned to Namibia by Germany in March. However, Namibians still demand a formal apology from the German government as Tendai Marima, a post-doctoral researcher in African literature, wrote on the Think Africa Press website : The skulls and skeletons that...
Divisions Persist in Cameroon Despite Reunification's Grandiose Golden Jubilee
Criticism was heaped on President Paul Biya for the celebration, held three years late and on a date that had no historical significance.
The Utopia that We Are All Sudanese
Dalia Haj Omar discusses ‘The Utopia that We Are All Sudanese’: Following the sad events of March 11, at the University of Khartoum, GIRIFNA did what it usually does. It issued a brief statement based on eyewitness accounts of its members about the death of student Ali Abbaker Musa. And...
Six Women Held as Slaves in Southern Lebanon
Ivory Coast-based news site Koaci.com has uncovered the story of six women in southern Lebanon who were kept slavery-like conditions. Lebanese blogger Joey Ayoub draws attention to their plight.
The Daily Lives of Sub-Saharan Immigrants in Prague
Chadian blogger Réndodjo Em-A Moundona [fr] writes about the daily lives of African immigrants in Prague [fr] : Une petite discussion avec ces Africains suffit pour se rendre à l´évidence que la communauté n´est ni menacée, ni totalement intégrée. Comme fille africaine, il est quasi impossible de trouver un travail conséquent [..] En général, les...
Draft Penal Code in Violation of Women and Children's Rights
This week, the Mozambican NGO Fórum Mulher (Women's Forum) organized a march in protest of a change to the penal code that would threaten human rights. A group of civil society organizations delivered a note on February 24, 2014 denouncing violations of the rights of women, children and sexual minorities...
Ethiopian Journalist Reeyot Alemu Has Been in Jail for 1,000 Days
On March 16, 2014, jailed Ethiopian journalist Reeyot Alemu spent her 1000th day of imprisonment. Twitter users lent their support using the hashtag #ReeyotAlemu.
Digging into Uganda's Anti-homosexuality Bill
Kristoff Titeca looks beyond a single explanation on Uganda's anti-homosexuality bill: A crucial point is that President Museveni has never been an outspoken supporter of the bill, instead being rather dubious about it: he was fully aware of the disastrous international consequences. In his first public reaction after the introduction...
On Rwanda's Twittergate
Susan Thomson discusses Rwanda’s Twittergate in the context of disinformation campaign by Rwanda's president Paul Kagame: Rwanda’s Twitter-gate raises questions about the central role of RPF Twitter-trolls in calling out foreign journalists who seek to hold it to account for its excesses at home and abroad. President Kagame’s reactionary tweets...
5 ICT Solutions From Miss Geek Rwanda 2014
MsGeekRW is a competition for Rwandan women encouraging them to showcase their knowledge and skills in ICT. The event was held during 2014's International Women's Day on March 8, 2014. The event shortlisted the following 5 best ICT solutions: 1.Mobile Cow 2. Wireless Blackbox 3. Item Locator 4. Online Driving...
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