Ep. 159: A conversation with Mayor Manuel de Araújo on urban governance, community, and climate resilience

Happy new year from the Ufahamu Africa team! We’re back with a conversation with Manuel de Araújo, mayor of Quelimane, Mozambique about how he became mayor, why he switched political parties in 2018, and what motivates voters in Mozambique.   In the news wrap, Kim and Rachel share updates on Nigerian elections, the famine in Read More…

Ep. 120: A conversation with Zachariah Mampilly on researching African politics

Joining us this week is friend of the show, Zachariah Mampilly! He speaks with Kim about researching and teaching African politics, as well as his Program on African Social Research (PASR) which supports junior African scholars as they work to publish in academic journals.

In the news wrap, Kim and Rachel talk about the Islamic State in Mozambique, news from Nigeria, and political updates in Côte d’Ivoire.

Ep. 101: A conversation with Anne Meng about authoritarianism and leadership succession

Why would a dictator create constraints to their own power? Anne Meng explains to us in this week’s episode! Meng shares her expertise, which can also be found in her newly published article, “Winning the Game of Thrones,” and book, “Constraining Dictatorship.”

In other news, Kim and Rachel cover Ivorian elections, term limits, and the insurgency in Northern Mozambique.

Ep. 77: A conversation on agriculture and innovation in Africa with YALI Mandela Fellows

This week’s episode opens up with discussion about the recent elections in Botswana and Mozambique, the anti-sanctions protests in Zimbabwe, post-peace prize Ethiopia, and more. 

Co-host Rachel Beatty Riedl moderates this week’s conversation on agriculture and innovation in Africa. Our guests are Kudzai Kutukwa, Kitso Dube, and Andrew Dillon. Kudzai and Kitso were YALI Mandela Fellows at Northwestern University earlier this year, when this conversation was recorded.

Kudzai is the co-founder and CEO of Mobbisurance, which is a startup that develops multi-based crop insurance products and other financial services for small-holder farmers. Kitso currently serves as a loan officer for FBC Holdings, helping communities that are marginalized access financial services in Zimbabwe. Andrew is a development economist, appointed as a Clinical Associate Professor within the Kellogg School of Management’s Public-Private Interface Initiative and a Research Associate Professor in the Global Poverty Research Lab at the Buffett Institute. The panel discussion begins at 12:36.

Ep. 76: A conversation with Grieve Chelwa on how economics has an Africa problem

We start this week’s newswrap celebrating Kenyan marathoners, highlighting recent arts and culture pieces in OkayAfrica, talking about elections in Mozambique, protests in Guinea, and this year’s Nobel Prize in Economics winners. This week’s guest is economist Grieve Chelwa, a senior lecturer at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business. Prior to his appointment at UCT, Dr. Chelwa was a post-doctoral fellow with Harvard University’s Center for African Studies, the Southern African Institute for Policy and Research, and the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of the Witwatersrand. In addition to his scholarly work, he is a contributing editor to Africa Is A Country. We talk about economics (including what it means to be a development economist), research and collaboration, the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, and more. Our conversation begins at 14:27.

Ep. 63: A conversation with Muna Ndulo on international financial transparency, investment vs. insurgency, and more

We begin this week’s episode talking about the resignation of Algerian president Bouteflika, mistrust challenging response to the Ebola outbreak in Eastern Congo, and we mark the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. This week’s conversation is with Muna Ndulo, the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of International & Comparative Law at Cornell Law School. Professor Ndulo is an expert on constitution making, governance and institution building, international criminal law, African legal systems, and human rights. Rachel sat down with Prof Ndulo and asked him about international financial transparency, investment vs. insurgency in Northern Mozambique, the role of the judiciary in African elections, and the confrontation of customary law and gender equality in the colonial and contemporary periods. Their segment begins at 12:16. 

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.