People wait in line outside their voting station in the popular neighbourhood of Ngor in Dakar on July 31, 2022.
Photo by JOHN WESSELS/AFP via Getty Images
The 2024 presidential election is shaping up to give Senegalese a significant and competitive election, leaving voters in the driver’s seat.
American president Joe Biden, left, with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa at the 2021 G7 Summit in England.
Leon Neal/Pool/AFP via Getty Images.
Both presidents are committed democrats operating in hostile environments. They are also committed to forging mutually beneficial ties.
Raila Odinga, the Azimio La Umoja (One Kenya Coalition Party) coalition presidential candidate.
Photo by Ed Ram/Getty Images
Odinga’s legal petitions have entrenched the rule of law and and deepened democracy in Kenya.
Angolan girls in front of a patriotic slogan on a wall.
Photo by Eric Lafforgue/Art In All Of Us/Corbis via Getty Images
A prolonged economic recession triggered by falling oil prices and worsened by the COVID pandemic has deeply affected the everyday lives of Angolans.
Simon Maina/AFP/GettyImages
In Kenya’s parliamentary system, lack of a clear party majority makes it hard for a president to deliver on election promises.
Opening ceremony of Chad’s national inclusive dialogue, in N'Djamena on August 20.
Photo by Aurelie Bazzara-Kibangula/AFP via Getty Images
Chad’s ongoing national inclusive dialogue appears great on paper but there are serious gaps and little hope for peace and democracy.
Thandi Modise, South Africa’s defence minister.
Michal Fludra/NurPhoto via Getty Images
South Africa’s foreign policy is supposed to be guided by the principle of ubuntu (humanness), so a visit to an aggressor is hard to explain.
South African foreign minister Naledi Pandor hosts US secretary of state Antony Blinken for a strategic dialogue.
Jacoline Schoonees/Dirco
It’s unclear what practical purpose the drafters of South Africa’s foreign policy document envisaged it serving, and who its intended audience is.
A woman at a protest in support of victims of the Marikana massacre outside the South African parliament.
EFE-EPA/Nic Bothma
Individual beliefs about the past and its relevance to the present strongly influenced awareness of the Marikana tragedy.
William Ruto speaks after being declared the winner of Kenya’s close-fought presidential election.
Tony Karumba/AFP via Getty Images
The division within the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, the fact that the race was very close, and turnout was relatively low may increase incentives to challenge the results.
Eritrean refugee children in Ethiopia.
Eduardo Soteras/AFP via Getty Images
Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia are caught in a conflict in a country that was supposed to provide them refuge.
Delegates at the African Union Summit held in Malabo, Capital of Equatorial Guinea, on 27 May 2022 to address worsening humanitarian crises in Africa.
AFP via Getty Images
The AU’s first two decades have largely represented a magical, mystical world of unfulfilled expectations.
Hundreds of people gather on the small hill were some of the Marikana miners were shot by police in 2012.
EFE-EPAS/Stringer
The country urgently needs more people who are committed to living decently to undo the systemic humiliation caused by political and economic institutions.
US state secretary Antony Blinken seeks closer ties with Africa.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Washington must overcome growing anti-west sentiment on the continent given the development alternative that China offers.
The late former Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos.
Agência Brasil, used under Creative Commons Licence
The political skill to turn situations to his advantage, rather than any ability to mobilise people, made Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders.
Graffiti in Muslim-dominated Mombasa rallies against the 2017 election with the Kiswahili slogan “Kura ni Haramu” (“voting is haram/prohibitted”).
Photo by Janer Murikira/picture alliance via Getty Images
The increase in terror attacks has complicated the Kenyan government’s relationship with the country’s Muslim community.
The governing ANC’s policy proposals don’t inspire confidence.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
The deliberations were characterised by disingenuous, counter-factual policy pronouncements, and de facto denials of the ANC’s culpability in causing many of the current problems facing the country.
Getty Images
That there is no clear favourite to win shows the campaigning has been relatively free and competitive.
Sorting newly picked coffee beans.
Thierry BrŽsillon-GODONG/GettyImages
The peasantry still provides almost all the resources of the party-state, yet most of the agrarian policy decisions are taken without consultation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (L).
Photo by Sean Gallup - Pool /Getty Images
Five essential reads on Russia’s relationship with Africa.