Blog Profile / Baobab
| URL : | http://www.economist.com/blogs/baobab | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Local Interest / Africa | |
| Posts on Regator: | 285 | |
| Posts / Week: | 2.5 | |
| Archived Since: | April 18, 2011 | |
Blog Post Archive
Moving to Maputo
POLANA CANIÇO lies just two miles from the city centre of Maputo, Mozambique’s capital (pictured). Almost all the houses in this small residential neighbourhood stand one-story tall and are owned or rented by Mozambican families. That is unlikely to be the case in a few years. Show More Summary
Of great friendships and natural partners
ON JUNE 6th Angola’s president, José Eduardo dos Santos, gave his first major interview in 22 years. In it, Mr dos Santos said that the statesman he most admires is Brazil’s former president, Lula da Silva, because of his work to forge a more inclusive society. Show More Summary
Praying for his comfort and dignity
ALL over South Africa, Nelson Mandela looms large: beneath the 8-metre-tall statue atop a hill in Bloemfontein, the judicial capital, visitors posing for photos barely come up to his knees. Yet though the image of him remains as strong as ever, nearly 10 years have passed since he withdrew from public life. Show More Summary
Eastern Congo, the Central African Republic and Kenya
AS WELL as our leader and article on the new UN force in eastern Congo, this week's issue of The Economist includes a look at the Central African Republic, which is drifting deeper into crisis under an unruly band of rebels, and a report on Britain's quasi-apology to Kenya's Mau Mau veterans. Follow paywall rules
Once a rebel always a rebel?
THIS week's print issue of The Economist includes an article on the new UN force in eastern Congo as well as a leader on whether that force is a good thing (on balance we think it is). The story is focused on what is going to happen militarily in North Kivu province and along the shores of Lake Kivu. Show More Summary
Food, low-cost airlines and dangerous driving
THIS week's issue of The Economist takes a look at Zambeef, a fast-growing food firm, and FastJet, an African low-cost airline which is struggling to establish itself. It also asks whether political demonstrations in Ethiopia could herald greater freedom, reviews two books on Somalia's Shabab, and takes a driving test in Nigeria.
Not so fast
ROY BENNETT breaks off from his lunch to share a joke with Zimbabwean staff at a restaurant deep in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, South Africa’s commercial capital. Mr Bennett has been exiled from his native Zimbabwe since 2010 when he was acquitted of trumped-up charges of treason. Show More Summary
Free to protest
A RARE flicker of political protest graced the streets of Ethiopia’s otherwise regimented capital, Addis Ababa, on June 2nd. Demonstrators marched peacefully through the city, many carrying pictures of imprisoned loved ones. Later they gathered on Churchill Avenue, the capital’s main thoroughfare, where they were told that a new struggle had begun. Show More Summary
Beleaguered
AMID the celebrations of its 50th anniversary, the African Union last week called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague to drop its cases against Kenya's president and vice-president, accusing it of “race hunting”. A spokesman for the tribunal said there would be no response. Show More Summary
Anger stored up
IN MAY 2008 a spate of violence against black foreigners in Johannesburg’s townships claimed at least 62 lives and displaced tens of thousands. Five years on, new attacks on foreign-owned shops, this time in Orange Farm on the southern...Show More Summary
Abuse in the name of security
FATUMA (not her real name) was at home in Eastleigh, a Somali-dominated suburb of Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, when the police called on her. She showed them her refugee permits but they took the 23-year-old outside and loaded her onto a waiting truck. Show More Summary
The hills are alive again
AFTER a six month hiatus, fighting returned to the hills above Goma, eastern Congo’s aid and trading hub, as rebels clashed with the Congolese army under the watchful eye of the UN’s blue-helmeted peacekeepers. It took the visit, on May 23rd of Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, for both sides to agree to a ceasefire. Show More Summary
Half a century on
AS WORKERS put the final touches to the mighty complex of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital and long-time headquarters of the AU and its forerunner, the Organisation of African Union (OAU), residents hoped that months of diversions and heavy traffic would soon be over. Show More Summary
The sins of wages
MANY African economies are booming. South Africa’s is not. Europe, its biggest export market, is mired in recession. Mining output fell in February and again in March. Consumer confidence is at a nine-year low. Massmart, part-owned by Walmart, this week became the latest big retailer to report disappointing sales figures. Show More Summary
Standing up for women
BOGALETCH “BOGE” GEBRE is an academic and women's rights campaigner whose organisation, Kembatti Mentti Gezzima (Kembatta Women Stand Together), is credited with drastically reducing the practise of female genital mutilation in her home country of Ethiopia. Show More Summary
Appy birthdays
CÔTE D’IVOIRE may be one of the few places where birther conspiracies run hotter than in America. For decades, opponents of the president, Alassane Ouattara, have accused him of hailing from neighboring Burkina Faso. They successfully exploited the controversy to keep him off the ballot in the 1995 and 2000 presidential elections. Show More Summary
Back to banking?
TWO years have passed since a sex scandal toppled the former head of the IMF and one-time French presidential hopeful, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, or “DSK” as he likes to be known. On May 14th, in the same week as a trailer was releasedShow More Summary
Back in business
A PLUME of black smoke marked the resumption of South Sudan’s main oil field on May 5th, after a 16-month hiatus. The Palouge oil field in the north-eastern state of Upper Nile, which accounts for 80% of the country’s oil production,...Show More Summary
Boycotting the president
“I’M ENJOYING this benign neglect,” noted Liberia’s president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, when asked to comment on the decision of her country’s media to boycott her. “I wish they will continue it for a long time,” she said. Liberia’s press...Show More Summary
Wheeling out even bigger guns
WHAT is the best response when facing a regional insurgency and your troops are fanning the flames with violent raids? President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria seems to think it is to send in even more troops. On May 14th, he declared a state of emergency in three northern states that suffer frequent terror attacks. Show More Summary