Ep. 52: A conversation with Matthew Page on the upcoming Nigerian elections

This week’s episode begins with discussion over the contested elections and recent result announcement in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and a coup attempt by junior military officers in Gabon.

Our episode features a conversation with Matthew Page (@MatthewTPage), an associate fellow at Chatham House and formerly the U.S. intelligence community’s top Nigeria expert. Along with Ambassador John Campbell (@JohnCampbellcfr), Matthew wrote the new Oxford University Press book, Nigeria: What Everyone Needs to Know. We chatted with Matthew about their book and about Nigeria’s elections next month. His segment begins at 11:16. 

Ep. 45: A conversation with Abdulbasit Kassim on religion, Boko Haram, and more

In this week’s episode, we talk about conflict in Cameroon, work by the writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, land restitution in South Africa, and Nanjala Nyabola’s new book. This week’s featured conversation is with Abdulbasit Kassim, who visited Northwestern University’s Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa earlier this week. Kassim is a PhD student in the Department of Religion at Rice University, where his research focuses on the Intellectual History of Islam in Africa, Contemporary Islamic Movements in Africa, Postcolonial African States, African Religions, and the International Relations of Sub-Saharan Africa. He is the co-editor of The Boko Haram Reader: From Nigerian Preachers to the Islamic State. The Boko Haram Reader is an unprecedented collection of primary source texts, audio-visuals, and nashids translated into English from Hausa, Arabic, and Kanuri. It traces the history and evolution of the Boko Haram movement. Kassim’s segment begins at 5:53.

Ep. 34: A conversation with Judd Devermont on Nigeria’s civil war and how analysis can go wrong

In this week’s episode, I chat about the Nigerian Civil War with Judd Devermont, the National Intelligence Officer for Africa at the U.S. National Intelligence Council. He is also a lecturer at George Washington University’s Elliot School of International Affairs. Devermont has worked and lived in Nigeria, South Africa, and Côte d’Ivoire. He holds an MA in African Studies from Yale University and a BA in History from UCLA. He is a guest on Ufahamu Africa in a personal capacity – as a citizen, not as a representative of the U.S. government. We talk about Devermont’s recent publication in African Affairs, “The US intelligence community’s biases during the Nigerian civil war.” Our conversation begins at 2:33.