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An engraving from 1992 representing a voodoo rite in Haiti. Nicolas Jallot/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

How the word ‘voodoo’ became a racial slur

Shows, movies and day-to-day language promote myths about voodoo that reinforce more than a century of stereotypes and discrimination, writes a scholar of Africana studies.
Russian flags appeared on the streets of Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou shortly after the coup had been announced. Vincent Badoo/Reuters/Alamy Stock Photo

Burkina Faso coup raises questions about growing Russian involvement in west Africa

Burkina Faso looks to be the latest west African state where Russian influence is on the rise.
Haitian police patrol outside the presidential residence in Port-au-Prince on July 7, 2021, after President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated. Valerie Baeriswyl/AFP via Getty Images

Haiti’s president assassinated: 5 essential reads to give you key history and insight

Expert background on Haiti, where President Jovenel Moïse’s July 7 killing is the latest in the Caribbean nation’s long list of struggles.
Jean Marcellis Destine, dressed as Haitian independence hero Jean-Jacques Dessalines, heads to a protest against President Jovenel Moïse in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Oct. 4, 2019. AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell

Haiti protests summon spirit of the Haitian Revolution to condemn a president tainted by scandal

Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who freed Haiti from French colonial rule in 1804, is revered as a spirit in the Haitian religion. Now he’s become an icon of the uprising against President Jovanel Moïse.
Campaign ads for Ali Bongo in his successful 2009 bid to succeed his father as president of Gabon. The Bongo family has lead Gabon uninterrupted for over 50 years. Reuters/Daniel Magnowski

As its ruling dynasty withers, Gabon – a US ally and guardian of French influence in Africa – ponders its future

Gabon’s strongman president, Ali Bongo, is barely clinging to power after contested elections, a stroke and a coup attempt. The Bongo family has run this stable central African nation for 52 years.
A statue in Port-au-Pirnce honors Jean-Jacques Dessalines’ legacy as a Haitian revolutionary. Now, a renamed Brooklyn street does, too. AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery

Meet Haiti’s founding father, whose black revolution was too radical for Thomas Jefferson

A renamed Brooklyn street celebrates Jean-Jacques Dessalines, a Haitian slave turned president. For centuries his legacy was tarnished by allegations that Haiti’s revolution led to ‘white genocide.’

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