Sub-Saharan Africa
While maintaining a strong awareness of historical contexts, our coverage of Sub-Saharan Africa aims to comprehensively address many of the most pressing challenges facing the region today.
From LGBTQI+ rights in Uganda to the economic situation in Zambia, we aim to provide nuanced and insightful analysis. In our archives, you will also find profiles of individual countries located within the region where you can learn more about colonial legacies, climate breakdown and demographics.
A taste of hope
With herders under threat from global heating in Somaliland, the government has hatched a plan to move millions to the coast. But can pastoralists adapt to fishing. Alice Rowsome and Yahye Xanas investigate.
Introducing...Samia Suluhu Hassan
Richard Swift on East Africa’s first woman president, a Zanzibar-based organizer promising to protect Tanzanian workers and their basic freedoms.
Zuma is still clinging to power, citizens are paying the price
South Africa’s recent uprisings have revealed how much of a tinderbox the country is, argues Glen Retief.
When will Chad be free – of France?
France’s involvement in Chad makes a mockery of independence, argues Nanjala Nyabola.
Fighting dispossession
Citizens’ groups are resisting gentrification, evictions and housing inequality in urban South Africa in a variety of creative ways. Ben Verghese and Ilham Rawoot report from Cape Town.
Smothered by roads
Nanjala Nyabola mourns the loss of Nairobi's canopy, and questions the expansion of cities.
Zambia’s meal-finishers
Audrey Simango reports on the phenomena of young men taking over abandoned meals.
How British aid abandoned the girls of South Sudan
UK funding must urgently be restored to those in desperate need, says educator Rod Hicks.
Country profile: Namibia
Last profiled in 1991, Namibia’s now younger electorate is calling for jobs and land justice amid a Covid-19-induced recession.
‘Let them own their country’
Liam Taylor on the popstar politician taking on a ‘horrifying’ election battle in Uganda.
Explosive mix
As big international players eye up Mozambique’s natural gas reserves, a storm of conflict brews for local communities. Sophie Neiman investigates.
The assault on journalists is an assault on democracy
Chin’ono’s crime was using Twitter to criticize Zimbabwe’s government, writes Nanjala Nyabola.
Letter from Johannesburg
Yewande Omotoso ponders how belonging to a city goes beyond the bald fact of living in it.
Letter from Johannesburg
Green medicine: Yewande Omotoso’s apartment is slowly being taken over by plants, much to her delight.
View from Africa
Abandoned by the state, self-organized health workers in Kenya are absorbing the brunt of the pandemic, writes Nanjala Nyabola.
Doctors priced out
Joylean M Baro on how Zimbabwean doctors on the frontlines of Covid-19 care have been priced out of treatment.
‘I was ready to do whatever it took to bring peace’
Death threats delivered by bleeding amputees were not enough to deter Betty Bigombe from trying to make peace between Joseph Kony’s notorious Lord’s Resistance Army and the Ugandan government of Yoweri Museveni.
To fight Covid-19, Africa must reclaim its economic sovereignty
A global coalition of economists calls for a radical shift in Africa’s economic policy, one rooted in sovereignty and sustainability.
‘Young people in our country need care and support to thrive’
Flavia Mutamutega, Rwanda’s sole agony aunt for adolescent girls, tells Veronique Mistiaen about the problems that preoccupy them.
Introducing...Lazarus Chakwera
Richard Swift on the theologian-president promising to stamp out nepotism and corruption in Malawian politics.
Why Indian outrage over Black Lives Matter rings hollow
Anti-blackness is still a galvanizing force in India, writes Nilanjana Bhowmick.
‘I’ll paint all the ways South Sudan has suffered’
South Sudan’s James Aguer Garang talks to Jan-Peter Westad about art, trauma and healing.
Ways of belonging
Having travelled to the land of her birth as the coronavirus pandemic began to gather pace, Yewande Omotoso feels the tug of home.
First Ebola, then Covid-19
Four years ago, New Internationalist travelled to West Africa to hear the stories of communities in recovery from the deadly Ebola epidemic. Hazel Healy gets back in touch.
Fed up with the fumes
Dirty air in Nigeria takes a huge toll on lives and livelihoods. But civil society is not short of ideas for change, as Michael Simire finds out.
Spotlight: Maaza Mengiste
Maaza Mengiste talks to Subi Shah about the women who fought Mussolini in Ethiopia.
The fight to free Nigeria’s prisoners
Two-thirds of the country’s inmates haven’t even been on trial yet. Nosmot Gbadamosi speaks to an all-woman law firm fighting for their rights.
Who are you calling ‘international community’?
When did the ‘international community’ become a synonym for the West, asks Nanjala Nyabola?
Race and the city
Yewande Omotoso reflects on why no-nonsense Johannesburg is the place that suits her best.
‘I didn’t want to be a mother’
Trifonia Melibea Obono records the unheard stories of queer women living in the West African state of Equatorial Guinea.
For-profit investments are not ‘development’
The British government plans to divert taxpayers’ money into private hands – and away from the world’s poorest, warns Labour’s Dan Carden.
