Ep. 125: A conversation with Alhousseini Diabate about land and food access in West Africa (English)

Alhousseini Diabate joins us this week for a conversation about land access and food access in West Africa, particularly in Mali. This version of the episode is dubbed in English, but the original episode was conducted between Rachel and Diabate in French. You can find the French version of the episode on ufahamuafrica.com.

Don’t forget to also send us recorded clips of you sharing your good news with us! We will share everyone’s good news in our upcoming season 5 finale episode.

Ep. 125: A conversation with Alhousseini Diabate about land and food access in West Africa (French)

Alhousseini Diabate joins us this week for a conversation about land access and food access in West Africa, particularly in Mali. Rachel interviews Diabate in French, but check out a dubbed version of the conversation in English on ufahamuafrica.com.

Don’t forget to also send us recorded clips of you sharing your good news with us! We will share everyone’s good news in our upcoming season 5 finale episode.

Ep. 118: A rerun of our conversation with Ashley Currier about LGBT organizing in Africa

This week, we are re-airing Kim’s interview with Ashley Currier, whose work looks at LGBT organizing in Africa. Currier spoke to Kim about her books, “Out in Africa” and “Politicizing Sex in Contemporary Africa,” visibility of African activists, and homophobia on the continent.

In the news this week: a coup in Mali, volcanic eruptions in eastern Congo, and reduced food rations in Rwandan refugee camps. Plus, Kim and Rachel share a summer music recommendation!

Don’t forget to also send us your good news! We will be sharing the wins of our listeners in a future episode, anything from exciting graduation announcements to book publications to being reunited with a family member after getting vaccinated! Email us a phone recording of your good news to ufahamuafrica@gmail.com.

Ep. 103: A conversation with Cyril Obi of the African Peacebuilding Network

Joining us in conversation this week is Cyril Obi, program director of the African Peacebuilding Network, to talk with Rachel about the geopolitics of oil in Africa, his work with the Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa Program, and the great work of the African Peacebuilding Network.

And if you’re still looking for gifts for your African studies friends, check out this week’s news wrap where Kim and Rachel share the books we should be reading. In other news, we talk Ghanian elections, all of the happenings in the Sahel, and Malawi being selected as the country of the year.

Ep. 92: A conversation with entrepreneurs on the continent about innovation, COVID, and more

  The news wrap for this week’s episode offers insights into legislative elections in Mali, COVID and politics in Malawi, and more.  This week, we highlight a panel conversation with entrepreneurs from the Africa Summit at Princeton University on the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The conversation was hosted by Bayo Read More…

Ep. 72: A conversation with Susanna Wing on intergroup violence and instability in Mali

In this week’s episode, we start with news about LGBTQ rights in Botswana, Russian interference in African countries’ domestic politics, and east African governments announcing increased spending on infrastructure. We also mention the upcoming book launch for Jeffrey Paller and Noah Nathan’s respective books at CDD-Ghana on June 19th.

This week’s conversation is with Susanna Wing, associate professor of political science at Haverford College. She is author of the award-winning book, Constructing Democracy in Transitioning Societies of Africa: Constitutionalism and Deliberation in Mali, that was later published in paperback in 2010 as Constructing Democracy in Africa: Mali in Transition. Earlier this week Susanna wrote a helpful explainer piece about the recent violence and instability in Mali, which we talk about in this week’s episode. Our conversation begins at 11:11.

Ep. 65: A conversation with Jeffrey Paller on urban politics, democracy in Ghana, and more

We start our episode this week talking about recent pieces on Sudan published in The Monkey Cage, the row between Uganda and Rwanda, African migrants stuck in Mexico, and the latest on events in Mali. This week’s conversation is with Jeffrey Paller (@JWPaller), an assistant professor of politics at the University of San Francisco. He was formerly a fellow at the Earth Institute at Columbia University and a Research Associate at the Center for Democratic Development in Ghana. Our listeners might be familiar with Jeffrey’s weekly news bulletin, This Week in Africa. We spoke with him about his new book, published this week, Democracy in Ghana: Everyday Politics in Urban Africa. Our conversation with Jeffrey begins at 10:34.

Ep. 64: A conversation with Hannah Armstrong on politics in Algeria, the Sahel, illicit trafficking and borders

In this week’s episode, we talk about Saharan Futures, protests and political change in Sudan, political maneuvering in Senegal, and what Cyclone Idai teaches us about governance of disasters and in urban spaces.Our featured guest this week is Hannah Armstrong, the Senior Sahel consultant at the International Crisis Group. She has worked across North Africa and the Sahel as a writer and researcher for various publications and organizations since 2006. She served as a Fulbright fellow in Morocco and as a fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs in Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Algeria, and the Western Sahara from 2012 to 2014.  Rachel spoke with Hannah earlier this week when she was visiting Chicago from Dakar, where she is based. Their conversation begins at 13:03.

Ep. 54: A conversation with Jaimie Bleck on elections in Africa, music in Mali, and more

This week’s episode begins with conversation about the Congolese elections, Laurent Gbagbo’s acquittal in the International Criminal Court, and political jostling between the president and deputy president in Kenya. Our guest this week is Jaimie Bleck, an Associate Professor of Political Science and Faculty Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame. In this week’s episode, we talk about her latest book, written with Nicolas van de Walle, Electoral Politics in Africa Since 1990: Continuity in Change. From her new book, we learn about common trends among African candidates, African voters’ priorities, and the issues candidates campaign on in African elections. She also tells us about an exciting project she worked on with Malian musicians live-scoring a silent film, “The Passion of Joan of Arc” at Notre Dame. Tune in to her segment at 9:09.