Africa Straight Talk

Fely Tchaco performing at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, California. Photo: Courtesy of Felymusic.com. Ivorian-American singer, songwriter performer and visual artist, Fely Tchaco, shares a remarkable story of resilience and how making music helped her deal with trauma from a violent childhood, and from the abusive relationships she got into as an adult. During … Continue reading Episode 53: How creating music has helped Ivorian songbird Fely Tchaco deal with trauma

In this episode, we offer "thoughts and prayers" for Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli, Africa’s Covid-19 denier-in-chief, who hasn’t been seen in public since Feb. 27 and is rumored to be hospitalized outside his country.

In commemoration of Women’s History Month, hosts Emmanuel Nado and Teboho talk about the African women who have influenced their lives and the lives of others.

Adoubou Traore, an Ivorian-born educator, activist, and community organizer, has dedicated his life to helping African immigrants to navigate the complex U.S. immigration system. He minces no words in challenging successful African immigrants to do more for the new arrivals in their community.

People have told Ebenezer Obeng-Nyarkoh that his mission to teach coding to kids in Ghana will fail. He is not listening. Obeng-Nyarkoh, co-founder of Kids Coding, talks about his vision, and how he's navigating around various obstacles.

When Nzambi Matee sees plastic waste, she sees gold. And she's on a quest to pave the streets and sidewalks of Kenya with it. Matee is the founder of Gjenge Makers, a Nairobi-based startup that is working to reverse environmental pollution by turning plastic waste into building materials.

Kwesi Wilson, a Ghanaian-born news analyst and professor of communication, joins Africa Straight Talk to explain the complicated legacy of former President Jerry John Rawlings, who died in November. A former Ghana Air Force fighter pilot, Rawlings navigated the country's bloody coup-ridden early decades of independence to become head of state in 1981.

In the first episode of our second season, we discuss America's wannabe dictator, Donald Trump, and how his "regime" emboldened real African despots like Uganda's Yoweri Museveni. After Trump's supporters launched a murderous terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, the Ugandan strongman showed how a true dictator should conduct elections.

In our last episode of the year, we're joined by Liberian-born journalist and educator, Joe Kappia, for an African perspective on the presidential elections in the United States, and in Africa. Kappia is the editor in chief and publisher of the West African Journal, a monthly news bulletin for the African communities throughout the United States. He is currently a teacher at the Abraham Lincoln High School in San Jose, California.

When Tebogo left South Africa for the United States to escape rampant racism in the banking industry she worked in, it didn't occur to her that she would be swapping one racist country for another. Tebogo is a community organizer, poet, house music enthusiast and part-time deejay . She is a founding member of the Afrika Moja, a San Francisco Bay Area collective that advocates for the unity of Africans in the Diaspora.