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.
How to fight illegal fishing
Can fishers, coastguards and marine activists see off the thieves from powerful nations plundering the seas of West Africa? Aïda Grovestins reports.
Sierra Leone’s fight against malaria
In a series of web documentaries, Sierra Leonean citizen reporters lay bare the devastating impacts of malaria.
On Hodan Nalayeh (1976 – 2019)
Nalayeh, founder of Integration TV, was killed by al-Shabaab militants on 12 July.
Protecting the ‘lungs of West Africa’
Palm-oil corporations are threatening the rich rainforests Liberians depend on. Veronique Mistiaen hears from environmental lawyer Alfred Brownell, who’s doing all he can to safeguard them.
Check your passport privilege
Nanjala Nyabola explains the weighty, 'anti-citizen' African bureaucracies that have their origins in the colonial period.
How a corporation patented Ethiopia’s most common staple
A Dutch company turning food in to intellectual property reveals a failed economic order, Edna Mohamed writes.
Photo essay: South Africa’s born-frees
This year, South Africa marks 25 years since its first democratic elections. Ilvy Njiokiktjien photographs the young South Africans who have known only life in the post-apartheid ‘rainbow nation’.
Forgiving the perpetrators of genocide
Hyppolite Ntigurirwa was seven years old when his father, friends and relatives were killed in the Rwandan genocide. He spoke to New Internationalist about why he’s chosen to forgive the perpetrators.
A botched decolonization: inside Cameroon’s civil war
In Cameroon, civil war is brewing along linguistic lines. Lorraine Mallinder reports on the repressive pouring fuel on the fire.
The new daughters of Africa
With the release of New Daughters of Africa, editor Margaret Busby explains why the collection – 25 years after Daughters of Africa was published – could not have come at a better time and introduces three stories from the anthology.
The global coffee trade’s role in the Rwandan Genocide
Twenty-five years after the ‘fastest and most efficient murder campaign of the twentieth century’, Katie McQue examines the role that the global deregulation of the coffee trade had in destabilizing Rwanda.
The promise of a ‘New International Economic Order’
What has become of the ‘Third World’? Featuring Vijay Prashad and Thomas Sankara.
Manafort’s history of violence in Africa
For Nanjala Nyabola, the sentencing of Trump’s campaign chair tells us a lot about the West’s relationship to Africa.
Kenya’s refugee reporters
Sally Hayden reports on a fully independent, refugee-run news outlet in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya
Red rice, decolonized
Nanjala Nyabola comments on the fluctuating, and often unaffordable, cost of local staples in Madagascar.
‘Little Africa’ in China
Guangzhou is home to Asia’s largest African migrant population, who come to China chasing business opportunities, reputable universities and low living costs. Carlotta Dotto reports.
Networked but commodified: digital labour in the remote gig economy
Research by Alex J. Wood, Mark Graham and others shows how gig economy platforms commodify labour in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Apathy reigns supreme in Nigeria’s fledgling democracy
Marred with delays and disillusioned voters, Chitra Nagarajan weighs up the results of Nigeria’s presidential election.
Chagossians urge caution over UN legal win
The United Nations International Court of Justice has ruled that Britain should hand the Chagos Islands back to Mauritius. Katie McQue reports.
Nigerian hopes for democracy on hold
Many Nigerians saw the 2019 elections as another step toward better governance. For now, they wait in uncertainty. Chitra Nagarajan reports.
Was Mugabe better?
In Zimbabwe, a deteriorating economic situation, coupled with renewed repression, is tempting ordinary citizens to think they were better off under Robert Mugabe. Cyril Zenda reports.
View from Africa: Cameroon
Here today, here tomorrow - Nanjala Nyabola questions Cameroon's never-ending presidential terms.
Winners and losers
Vanessa Baird analyses how the Global South is affected by the current trade turmoil – and old patterns of power.
Should the West stop giving aid to Africa?
Is aid just an extension of colonial economics? Or a lifeline for imperfect but necessary support systems? Firoze Manji and Pablo Yanguas go head to head on the thorny topic of development assistance.
Don’t privatize forests, educate the people
In rural Nigeria, religious leaders think sinful behaviour is to blame for climate change, writes Adesuwa Ero.
The rise and fall of Patrice Lumumba
The tragic, heroic story of Congo’s first prime minister. By ILYA.
Fake news is not just a Western problem
Misinformation is rife, but it’s nothing new, writes Nanjala Nyabola.
Standing against state violence
The powerful shackdweller’s social movement is mobilizing against assassinations in South Africa. Richard Pithouse reports.
The UK must stop aid to failing private schools
How did we get to the point where two African countries are trying to shut down our aid funded schools? Nick Dearden asks.
Theresa May’s dancing to the wrong tune on development
These latest announcements look like a modern-day scramble for Africa, Kate Osamor writes.
Can peacebuilders end the war with Boko Haram?
Guns will only take you so far in the fight against the jihadist rebels, Hazel Healy discovers.
Botswana: losing its sparkle?
Wame Molefhe profiles Botswana, where prosperity has morphed into corruption and inequality.
Challenging exploitation in the gig economy
Global South workers in the digital platform-enabled gig economy are beginning to organize. Alex J. Wood and Mark Graham report.
Namibia’s long fight for justice
Communities that were decimated by Germany’s forgotten genocide are now demanding justice. Gouri Sharma reports.
Worldbeater: Isaias Afwerki
We put the President of Eritrea’s track record – liberation fighter turned ruthless dictator – under the spotlight.
Next generation of Chagos exiles resists deportation
Decades after the UK made them exiles, their children and grandchildren now face expulsion. Katie McQue reports.