Ep. 116: A conversation with Christina Cottiero and Expédit Ologou about Benin

Joining us this week are special guests Christina Cottiero, a political science PhD student at UC San Diego doing award-winning research on regional security issues in West Africa, and Expédit Ologou, the founder and president at the Civic Academy for Africa’s Future, an independent research think tank in Benin, and a Senior Political Governance Officer for the Benin Office of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. They join Rachel for a conversation about the presidential election in Benin and ongoing concerns about de-democratization in the country.

In the news wrap, Kim and Rachel talk about Lesotho’s political impasse, corruption in South African politics, connecting looted African art to the Black Lives Matter movement, and more.

Ep. 93: A conversation with Kim Yi Dionne and Ken Opalo about the politics and policy of the COVID-19 pandemic and more

  This week’s news wrap featured discussions about recent election updates in Burundi and Benin, leadership changes in Lesotho, and more news regarding summer bonus content! In this episode, we highlight a panel discussion from an event with the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Our very own cohost, Kim Yi Dionne, was a Read More…

Ep. 67: An Africa podcast mashup

Our show this week begins with the elections in Benin, peacekeeping in Liberia, elections in South Africa and Malawi, and the Caster Semenya gender and racing saga. We also share an update on Ugandan musician-turned-politician Bobi Wine.This week’s in-depth conversation is really special: it features a mashup of four podcasts: Ufahamu Africa, On Africa, Into Africa, and African Tech Roundup. The hosts of all four shows come together to talk about a few things, including why we launched our respective shows. In addition to Ufahamu Africa’s hosts Kim Yi Dionne and Rachel Beatty Riedl, you’ll hear Travis Adkins (@TravisLAdkins), adjunct professor at Georgetown University in African Studies and Security Studies and the host of On Africa; Judd Devermont (@JDevermont), the director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and host of Into Africa, and Andile Masuku (@MasukuAndile), a Zimbabwean broadcaster and entrepreneur based in Johannesburg, South Africa and host of African Tech Roundup. We all owe a big thanks to Judd and his team at CSIS for hosting this mashup, which begins at 12:55.

Ep. 66: A conversation with Abdourahmane Seck on Islam, modernity, and more

We begin this week’s episode talking about Benin politics, a Malawian musician, the deployment of a malaria vaccine, a Russian company’s involvement in Sudan’s response to protesters, and the 25th anniversary of South Africa’s elections ending the Apartheid regime.This week we feature a conversation with Abdourahmane Seck, an anthropologist and historian at the Faculty of Civilizations, Religions, Arts and Communication at the Université Gaston Berger in Saint-Louis, Senegal. Dr. Seck is the author of several works on Islam and south-south migration. He is currently a visiting scholar in the Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa, part of the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs at Northwestern University. His conversation begins at 15:13.

Ep. 62: A conversation with Khalid Medani on protests in Sudan

We begin this week’s episode discussing protests and democracy in Benin, the damage from Cyclone Idai in Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe, and the consequences of climate change more broadly. Our featured conversation is with Khalid Medani, an Associate Professor of Political Science and Islamic Studies and the Chair of the African Studies Program at McGill University. He has published widely on the on the roots of civil conflict and the funding of the Islamic movement in Sudan, the question of informal finance and terrorism in Somalia, the obstacles to state building in Iraq, and the role of informal networks in the rise of Islamic militancy. He provides insights on the current protests in Sudan and puts them in context. His conversation begins at 10:02.