RFI

This week, Spotlight on Africa explores cinema and music scoring for African documentary projects with storytellers from Mozambique and Kenya. We will also bring you news from the Cannes Film Festival, along with the African teams selected to take part in the football World Cup.

The next time you watch a nature documentary filmed in Africa, listen carefully to the soundtrack: you might be hearing music composed in the West, a product of "parachute" filmmaking, rather than authentic sounds and locally led stories from the continent.

A group of artists, producers and organisers is working to change that through Africa Refocused, a collaboration between the National Geographic Society and Nature, Environment and Wildlife Filmmakers (NEWF).

NEWF offers mentorship, professional development and laboratories that teach specialised skills such as underwater cinematography and music composition, supporting a community of more than 370 storytellers from over 35 African countries, who have created 27 films and counting.

Their goal is to bring authentic sounds to the screen, so that Africa's nature documentaries reflect the continent's rhythms, sounds and instruments.

Spotlight on Africa spoke to two storytellers leading this movement. Dércio "Muha" Gomate is a National Geographic Explorer and Mozambican composer whose work has featured internationally, including his contribution to "Nkashi: Race for the Okavango", winner of Best Original Music Score at the 2023 Jackson Wild Film Festival.

Labdi Ommes, a NEWF Fellow, is a singer-songwriter and composer from Kenya who plays the orutu, an instrument women were historically forbidden to play.

They discuss their creative process in the field and the studio, how they are reclaiming soundscapes to replace "parachute" scores with local sounds, and how the NEWF Composers Lab is opening doors for African musicians to monetise their work and gain international exposure.

Africa at Cannes 2026

Meanwhile, African films featured at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Why is African cinema out of the picture at the Cannes Film Festival?

Our culture reporter Ollia Horton met the organisers of a programme supporting women film directors and screenwriters from West Africa.

Mariama Lab is a year-long mentoring programme created by Collectif 50/50, a French organisation for gender equality, and the Mariama Institut, a film-writing residency in Mauritania.

We will hear from Mathy Mendy, a coordinator with Collectif 50/50, and from the actress and director Azata Soro.

And the World Cup!

Finally, you will hear from Paul Myers, our sports reporter, who will be covering the 2026 football World Cup for RFI English.

It starts on 11 June with a game between the co-hosts Mexico and South Africa at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.

Africa's finest: Democratic Republic of Congo return renamed

It is the first tournament to feature 48 teams, 10 of them African, with matches played in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

 

 

 

This episode was mixed by Vincent Pora.

This week, Spotlight on Africa explores cinema and music scoring for African documentary projects with storytellers from Mozambique and Kenya. We will also bring you news from the Cannes Film Festival, along with the African teams selected to take part in the football World Cup.

The next time you watch a nature documentary filmed in Africa, listen carefully to the soundtrack: you might be hearing music composed in the West, a product of "parachute" filmmaking, rather than authentic sounds and locally led stories from the continent.

A group of artists, producers and organisers is working to change that through Africa Refocused, a collaboration between the National Geographic Society and Nature, Environment and Wildlife Filmmakers (NEWF).

NEWF offers mentorship, professional development and laboratories that teach specialised skills such as underwater cinematography and music composition, supporting a community of more than 370 storytellers from over 35 African countries, who have created 27 films and counting.

Their goal is to bring authentic sounds to the screen, so that Africa's nature documentaries reflect the continent's rhythms, sounds and instruments.

Spotlight on Africa spoke to two storytellers leading this movement. Dércio "Muha" Gomate is a National Geographic Explorer and Mozambican composer whose work has featured internationally, including his contribution to "Nkashi: Race for the Okavango", winner of Best Original Music Score at the 2023 Jackson Wild Film Festival.

Labdi Ommes, a NEWF Fellow, is a singer-songwriter and composer from Kenya who plays the orutu, an instrument women were historically forbidden to play.

They discuss their creative process in the field and the studio, how they are reclaiming soundscapes to replace "parachute" scores with local sounds, and how the NEWF Composers Lab is opening doors for African musicians to monetise their work and gain international exposure.

Africa at Cannes 2026

Meanwhile, African films featured at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Why is African cinema out of the picture at the Cannes Film Festival?

 

Our culture reporter Ollia Horton met the organisers of a programme supporting women film directors and screenwriters from West Africa.

 

Mariama Lab is a year-long mentoring programme created by Collectif 50/50, a French organisation for gender equality, and the Mariama Institut, a film-writing residency in Mauritania.

We will hear from Mathy Mendy, a coordinator with Collectif 50/50, and from the actress and director Azata Soro.

And the World Cup!

Finally, you will hear from Paul Myers, our sports reporter, who will be covering the 2026 football World Cup for RFI English.

It starts on 11 June with a game between the co-hosts Mexico and South Africa at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.

Africa's finest: Democratic Republic of Congo return renamed

It is the first tournament to feature 48 teams, 10 of them African, with matches played in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

 

 

 

This episode was mixed by Vincent Pora.

A former prime minister goes after a whistleblower and what that means for those who dare to speak out. Why a natural ingredient that could cover up to 40 percent of France's fertiliser needs is currently being flushed down the loo. And France's halting steps towards adopting daylight savings time.

Former prime minister Édouard Philippe, currently one of the leading contenders in next year's presidential race, is facing allegations of embezzling funds from Le Havre, the city he governs as mayor. A civil servant first raised the alarm over the alleged misconduct, and now the city has attacked her whistleblower status. Cléo Bour, legal manager of the Maison des Lanceurs d'Alerte, which provides support to whistleblowers, talks about France's fraught relationship with those who speak out, the patchwork of protections available to them, and what it means when a powerful political figure uses public resources to go after them. (Listen @1'50'')

France, Europe's largest agricultural producer, relies heavily on imported fertilisers to keep its fields producing. But the Middle East crisis has driven up the price of nitrogen-based fertilisers, while the cadmium-rich phosphates France imports from Morocco have serious health impacts. Microbiologist Marc-André Selosse argues there are sound financial, environmental and health reasons to look for homegrown alternatives – such as human waste, which he suggests could provide up to 40 percent of France's fertiliser needs. We also visit a pioneering urine collection point near Paris, run by the Ocapi research programme, which benefits a local farmer. (Listen @18')

France has been shifting its clocks forward in spring and back in autumn every year since 1976, but it first adopted daylight savings time in June 1916. (Listen @12'05'')

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompeani.

Spotlight on France is a podcast from Radio France International. Find us on rfienglish.com, Apple podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast app.

As attacks from jihadist groups allied to Tuaregs continue in Mali, global jihadism threatens Africa like no other region on earth, according to ACLED's latest report. With the organisation's expert on West Africa, Spotlight on Africa explores how jihadist groups are expanding across the continent, controlling territory, targeting civilians and disrupting infrastructure.

Coordinated attacks by Tuareg separatists and jihadists dealt a major new blow to the junta in power in the capital, Bamako, in the last days of April, securing the capture of Kidal, a northern rebel stronghold.

Several strategic towns and areas around the capital Bamako were also targeted in the offensive by Tuareg rebels of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) coalition and the jihadist Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), which was launched at dawn on Saturday 25 April.

Two days of intense fighting followed between Malian soldiers and the armed groups around Bamako and Kati, a garrison town and junta stronghold about 15 kilometres north of the capital.

Mali's junta has now lost control of key northern areas and still faces a growing insurgent campaign that is tightening pressure around Bamako rather than directly attempting to seize the capital.

Analysts say this could be a turning point for the military in power since a 2020 coup.

 

Mali plunged into uncertainty following coordinated attacks on junta

 

Mali has been beset by violence from radical Islamists affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group since 2012, as well as local criminal gangs and pro-independence fighters.

For more than a decade, around 300,000 refugees have fled to eastern Mauritania's desert Hodh Chargui region to escape the violence that has plagued Mali.

 

Héni Nsaibia is the senior analyst for West Africa at ACLED, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data group. He co-wrote the organisation's latest report, released in mid-May, showing that global jihadism threatens Africa like no other region on earth. It also explores how jihadist groups are expanding across the continent, controlling territory, targeting civilians and disrupting infrastructure.

Héni Nsaibia is Spotlight on Africa's guest this week.

"The whole offensive in Mali really marked a turning point in the conflict," he told RFI.

"It's not a development that arrived overnight; it's a gradual process that has been ongoing for many years. However, in the past few years, and especially since the military regimes in the region came to power, we have seen a degradation of the security situation in all three countries that form the alliance of Sahel states, where military officers have taken power on promises to deliver on security."

JNIM is likely to maintain military pressure on the Malian regime as it attempts to isolate the capital and ultimately bring down the government, thereby posing an existential threat to Bamako, according to Nsaibia.

The report also shows that West Africa has become the world's most active zone of Islamist militancy, with groups now combining improved tactics with greater coordination and the use of technologies such as armed drones.

Why the Sahel is now the world’s deadliest region for terrorism

 

As the security landscape across the Central Sahel and Lake Chad Basin shifts rapidly, the latest ACLED report reveals that jihadist activity is no longer just a series of localised insurgencies but a coordinated effort to challenge state authority across the region, with Islamic State activity in Africa hitting a record high of 86 per cent in early 2026.

 

Since early 2025, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) has also changed tactics and conducted more complex attacks carried out in succession over a short period of time.

With Héni Nsaibia, we will also discuss how jihadism has evolved across the rest of the continent.

The problem is now affecting not only the three Sahelian states of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, but is spreading rapidly across West Africa and beyond, including Somalia, Mozambique and the Great Lakes region.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This episode was mixed by Erwan Rome.

How two people in the French port city of Nantes – one descended from slave owners, the other from enslaved people – are working together to "repair" the country's troubled history. The slave money that built the Élysée Palace, the French president's official residence. And turmoil in the French film industry after the head of a major funder blacklisted hundreds of industry professionals who signed a petition against its right-wing billionaire owner, Vincent Bolloré.

Twenty-five years ago, France became the first country to recognise slavery as a crime against humanity, but has never issued an official apology for its role in the trade. Last month, Pierre Guillon de Princé, a descendant of a family of slave traders in the port city of Nantes, made history by apologising publicly for his family's actions. He and Dieudonné Boutrin, the descendant of enslaved people on the French overseas territory of Martinique, have come together to build fraternity amid growing racism in France. They talk about inaugurating a new memorial – the Mast of Fraternity and Memory – and their long, sometimes difficult battle to encourage reparatory justice. They're not responsible for the past, they say, but they are responsible for the present and the future. (Listen @0')

The Cannes Film Festival shines a light on the world of cinema – the films, the glamour and the business of making movies. In the midst of this year's edition, the French film industry was shaken as the head of Canal+, one of the biggest funders of French and European film, announced he would cut ties with the hundreds of actors, directors and creatives who signed a letter criticising the influence of right-wing billionaire Vincent Bolloré, who owns a third of the company. Economist Kira Kitsopanidou looks at the major role that Canal+ plays in financing French cinema, and what happens when money meets ideology. And RFI's Ollia Horton reports from the festival. (Listen @20')

What would become the Élysée Palace, the official residence of the French president, was built three centuries ago with money amassed by a French slave trader. Anti-racism activist Louis-Georges Tin calls on President Emmanuel Macron to acknowledge the building's history, while Laurine Gomis of association Memoires et Partages explains where to find other traces of France's slaving past in Paris. (Listen @13')

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompeani.

Spotlight on France is a podcast from Radio France International. Find us on rfienglish.com, Apple podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast app.

This week, Spotlight on Africa takes you to the 'Africa Forward' summit, hosted by France and Kenya in Nairobi on the 11th and 12th of May. It marks the first time Paris has staged such an event in an English-speaking African country -  and it comes at a moment of significant change and considerable challenges.

Joining Kenyan President William Ruto at the summit, French President Emmanuel Macron is accompanied by some 30 heads of state, as well as between 1,500 and 2,000 French and African business leaders and stakeholders. Young people, artists and athletes are also among those invited.

Formally titled Africa Forward: Partnerships between Africa and France for Innovation and Growth, the summit reflects a stated desire to diversify France's alliances. According to the Élysée, the aim is to forge closer ties with East African economies in the wake of a series of diplomatic crises across the Sahel.

France to host African summit in Kenya, in bid to ‘diversify alliances'

Also on the agenda are discussions on creative and cultural industries as economic drivers, and sport as an emerging frontier for investment and job creation. The energy transition, infrastructure development, regional connectivity, and agriculture and food systems feature among the other topics under consideration.

A new era?

According to XN Ikari, professor at the University of Nairobi, France still appears to be looking to East Africa after failing to support its partners in West Africa. New investors, he adds, are always welcome in Kenya.

For Roland Marchal, a senior research fellow at Sciences Po Paris covering Africa, the significance of the summit remains to be seen, depending on whether its promises on investment and climate justice materialise.

"The simple fact that the conference will pay attention to these issues is positive in itself," he tells RFI. "And Macron may rhetorically commit some money for new climate initiatives, this could be heard with some scepticism, as African leaders know very well that France is facing its own internal issues."

He adds that William Ruto has been a strong advocate for new environmental policies, and that the choice of Kenya to host the summit could therefore lend credibility to Emmanuel Macron's promises.

"It's always good to have conferences move around and test what the audience wants," infrastructure investment expert Bowale Odumade tells RFI, as you'll hear.

A central hub for transport and logistics, Nairobi also boasts a thriving financial industry and a technology start-up environment, she adds.

Also featured are Kenyan entrepreneurs, as well as Phil Clark, professor at SOAS, based between South Africa and the UK, on the greatest challenges facing the French if they want to be seen as equal and respectful partners.

 

 

This podcast was edited by Melissa Chemam and Erwan Rome, mixed by Erwan Rome.

A crackdown on France's unauthorised raves threatens an outlet for young people. How regional accents in France can hold you back. And the Front Populaire, which laid the foundations of France's welfare state.

The French government has vowed to crack down on unauthorised raves, known as "free parties", with a proposed law that would punish organisers with up to six months in prison and hefty fines. While the interior minister claims such gatherings threaten public order, free party fans defend their right to meet and share techno music outside of for-profit venues. Electronic music producer Maelström, who cut his teeth DJing at rave parties in France as a teenager in the late 1990s, looks back at the growth of that counter-culture and how it shaped his own music. Rather than repressing rave culture, he argues the state should help young people make such gatherings safe and sustainable. (Listen @2'15'')

France has dozens of regional accents, but you wouldn't know it to listen to broadcasters or politicians – most of whom have learned to speak a standardised form of French shaped in Paris. Sociologist Médéric Gasquet-Cyrus dissects his own Marseille accent and others from around the country, and explains why the impetus to flatten distinctive accents remains strong in France. (Listen @22')

The Front Populaire, a broad left-wing coalition elected in May 1936, introduced paid time off and other reforms that continue to shape French society today. Economic historian Nicolas Bresset explains why, 90 years on, it remains a powerful symbol for the French left. (Listen @14'50'')

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompeani.

Spotlight on France is a podcast from Radio France International. Find us on rfienglish.com, Apple podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast app.

As a major exhibition retracing how music from Africa, the Caribbean and North America merged to make a distinctly British sound opens in London, Spotlight on Africa looks at a century of black music in the diaspora.

V&A East, the latest offshoot of the world-renowned Victoria & Albert Museum, opened in Stratford – the area regenerated by London's 2012 Olympic Games – on 18 April. 

Its inaugural exhibition, entitled "The Music is Black: A British Story", charts the rise of black music in the UK, from early drumbeats brought over from Africa to the present day, in which African and Afro-Caribbean music reflect British multiculturalism.

Black British music takes centre stage as London's V&A East opens doors

From Africa via the Caribbean and North America, the contribution of musicians of African descent still resonates in the United Kingdom – from reggae to rap and grime, a contemporary black British musical genre born in East London, which has allowed young people to create a sense of belonging, while connecting to a global audience.

V&A East director Gus Casely-Hayford talks to RFI about how he imagined a space that would attract visitors from all over the world, as well as from across London.

We also hear from curator of the exhibition Jacqueline Springer, a former music journalist, about how her team planned a display that spans centuries of history.

Cathartic rhythms for West African band born in 'black London'

Looking outside London, Bristol rapper and producer Tricky – whose family has roots in Jamaica, Africa and England – talks about how his city invented its own distinctive sound in the 1990s: trip hop. 

And we hear how producer Tim Norfolk, of the duo The Insects, is releasing a record produced in Bristol in 1994 by the late Zimbabwean singer-songwriter Biggie Tembo, leader of the Bhundu Boys.

Spotlight on Africa is produced by RFI's English language service. Episode mixed by Erwan Rome.

This week in Spotlight on Africa: Sudan’s war enters its fourth year, with no sign of easing since fighting erupted on 15 April 2023. The conflict is intensifying, amid fresh accusations of foreign interference – most recently involving Ethiopia.

The conflict, now nearing its three-year mark, has already killed tens of thousands, displaced more than eleven million people and created what the UN describes as the world's largest displacement and hunger crisis.

International summits and negotiations have done little so far to put an end to the fighting, which has been marked by violations on both sides.

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Sudanese civilians continue to bear the brunt of the atrocities. 

The NGO’s latest report has found that forces affiliated with the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) have arbitrarily detained, tortured, and ill-treated civilians in areas under their control, denying them any due process for their rights.

Sudan is also directly affected by the US-Israeli war against Iran and Tehran’s retaliation in the Persian Gulf, reducing the supply of medicines to Africa – a sector already severely impacted by funding cuts. 

Sudan: rebels using sexual violence in Darfur as 'war weapon', says MSF

In this episode, you'll here from the newly appointed advisor to the Transitional Sovereignty Council (TSC) chairman in Sudan, Amgad Fareid Eltayeb, on the line from Khartoum, then Omar Digna in Cairo, Egypt – a Sudanese author and analyst – who fled the country four months after the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took over Khartoum. 

Ethiopia's involvement

Meanwhile, the RSF have been accused by the Sudanese military of launching drone attacks "from inside Ethiopian territory" since March. This constitutes the first public allegation of Ethiopian involvement in the conflict.

Ethiopia has denied the claim and has also rejected allegations that it is hosting RSF camps.

But the Yale School of Public Health's Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) said analysis of satellite imagery and open-source data shows activity "consistent with military assistance to the RSF" at an Ethiopian base in Asosa, in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, between late December 2025 and late March 2026.

To discuss Ethiopia’s involvement in favour of the RSF, and the recent changes on the conflict, we speak to Christy Cooney, Chief of the Sudan team for the NGO Avaaz, who is regular contact with its staff in Sudan.

"What the Yale team have been able to conclude with a high degree of confidence is that these vehicles are then being fitted at this Ethiopian military base, fitted with these mounted machine guns, and then being used in attacks that are where the RSF are crossing the border and launching attacks inside Sudan," Cooney said.

"So there you have the Ethiopian military colluding with the RSF to launch these attacks in Blue Nile. They're colluding with an organisation that has been credibly accused of of genocide in Darfur."

Chad relocates refugees amid rising tensions at border with Sudan

Saving Sudan's cultural legacy

One aspect that is less obvious to outsiders is the impact the war has had on the country’s culture and heritage. 

Important public buildings such as the Sudan National Museum have been ransacked since the fighting broke out, putting precious historical artefacts at risk of damage, theft and trafficking.

RFI's Ollia Horton looks into how Sudanese cultural institutions like the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums (NCAM) and the Louvre museum in France have been working together to preserve the country's heritage for future generations.

Spotlight on Africa is produced by RFI's English language service. Episode mixed by Erwan Rome.

A controversial antisemitism bill that opponents say would criminalise criticism of Israel. A small town reubilds its long-lost Statue of Liberty, a symbol of freedom, to help it rediscover its identity. And the story of France's first female general.

French MPs will vote next week on a bill that aims to tackle "new forms" of antisemitism, which has spiralled since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel triggered the war in Gaza. Among other measures, the legislation would create a new offence punishing incitement to "the destruction of a state". Critics claim the bill is aimed at silencing criticism of Israel and more than 600,000 people have signed a petition to push MPs to reject it. Law professor François Dubuisson argues the reform is not necessary and Cécile Marquerie, advocacy coordinator for a platform of pro-Palestine NGOs, raises concerns over freedom of speech. (Listen @2'40'')

In 1926, Rey Jeanton donated a replica of the Statue of Liberty to his hometown of Izon, a small town outside Bordeaux. It was his tribute to the United States, where he had spent over 30 years of his life. During WWII, the statue was destroyed, and with it, a piece of Izon’s history. A century later, Izon is recreating the statue to revive its city centre and forge a sense of identity for what risks becoming another commuter town. (Listen @20'10'')

The story of Valérie André, a helicopter pilot and neurosurgeon who blazed a trail for women in the armed forces when she became France’s first female general on 21 April 1976. (Listen @13')

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompeani.

Spotlight on France is a podcast from Radio France International. Find us on rfienglish.com, Apple podcasts (link here), Spotify (link here) or your favourite podcast app (pod.link/1573769878).