Ufahamu Africa

This week we feature an episode by our nonresident fellows Fu Asiedu and Ami Tamakloe. They discuss the anti-LGBT bill in Ghana, providing some background on the bill and the politics surrounding it. They also convene a roundtable conversation of Ghanaians discussing the realities of everyday life under this bill.

This is a really important episode and we’re grateful to Fu and Ami for giving a fuller sense than what our listeners might glean from international media headlines. As some of you might know, the anti-LGBT bill passed in February but since May, it has been under review in the courts. We’ll continue to follow the courts’ rulings and will keep our listeners up to date.

Find the books, links, and articles we mentioned in this episode on our website, ufahamuafrica.com.

Dr. Tedd Moya Mose is a legal professional whose interdisciplinary interests extend from international energy law and policy to the just transition to sustainable energy systems. In this conversation with our fellow Basil Ibrahim, they discuss Dr. Moya's participation at the Africa Climate Summit and the COP28 meetings last year and the dilemmas of developmental aspirations that remain tethered to carbon intensive pathways. 

Moya's work at the intersection of legal and academic practice proposes a unique perspective, combining work experience from East Africa, India, the UK and the U.S. with a sympathy for vulnerable people at the sharp end of climate catastrophes. Dr. Moya is presently an Oxford Martin fellow at Oxford University.

Find the books, links, and articles we mentioned in this episode on our website, ufahamuafrica.com.

We have a special French-language episode this week with  Mamadou Ismaïla Konaté, a well-known Malian lawyer, working in the Bars of Mali and Paris. He has been a Minister of Justice of Mali (2016-17). He is leading a professional association focusing on the development of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). 

In this episode with our fellow Expédit Ologou, Konaté argues that democracy is the worst political system except all the others. In spite of the ongoing military regimes in some countries, democracy should and will survive. But this will depend on the capacities of mobilization and resistance of the citizens and organizations all over the continent. Before and above all, the rehabilitation of democracy in Africa has undoubtedly to do with the reinvigoration of the fundamental pillars of freedom, equality and justice, and fundamentally, the reinvigoration of the rule of law. 

Find the books, links, and articles we mentioned in this episode on our website, ufahamuafrica.com.

Happy episode 200 of Ufahamu Africa! We're so pleased to feature one of our favorite episode formats for the occasion - a mashup! Thanks to the Global Stage podcast for hosting our cohost Rachel Beatty Riedl for a conversation with Notre Dame graduate student Rasheed Ibrahim and Afrobarometer director Joseph Asunka about the return of military coups on the continent.

It’s an important conversation stemming from a panel last week at the Global Democracy Conference hosted by the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at Notre Dame.  

Find the books, links, and articles we mentioned in this episode on our website, ufahamuafrica.com.

On May 29, South Africans will vote in the seventh election since the end of political apartheid in the early 1990s. This is the first election in which the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), is polling below 50 percent, which could force them into a coalition with one or more other parties to govern the country after the election.

To learn more, we speak with Carolyn Holmes, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She is an expert on South African politics and the author of The Black and White Rainbow: Reconciliation, Opposition, and Nation-Building in Democratic South Africa.

Find the books, links, and articles we mentioned in this episode on our website, ufahamuafrica.com.

"Lack of internet access leaves many without information on economic opportunities, health, and education," write Jeffrey Conroy-Krutz, Komi Amewunou, and Kelechi Amakoh in a new article from Good Authority. 

In today's bonus episode, Kim reads their latest piece, "Despite Africa's digital media boom, huge access gaps persist." 

Find the books, links, and articles we mentioned in this episode on our website, ufahamuafrica.com.

In the last few years, militaries have carried out coups in numerous African countries, including Gabon, Niger, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Guinea, Chad, and Mali. Does this signify the beginning of a much broader continent-wide “coup epidemic?” Or are these coups mostly affecting especially weak states that face specific challenges? Where is democratic resilience strong and where is there a risk of continued democratic backsliding?

Today's episode is borrowed from Good Authority and their new podcast! The episode features Good Authority’s Africa experts Ken Opalo and Kim Yi Dionne who discuss these issues. Opalo is an associate professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and the author of the substack An Africanist Perspective. Dionne is an associate professor at UC Riverside and Ufahamu Africa cohost.

Find the books, links, and articles we mentioned in this episode on our website, ufahamuafrica.com.

Fellow Gopolang Botlhokwane speaks to journalist and editor Njabulo Ngidi about the recent AFCON in Ivory Coast and the politics of football (or soccer, for our American listeners!) in Southern Africa. 

Njabulo Ngidi is a senior soccer journalist, he formerly led Newframe South Africa's sports desk. Ngidi's latest investigative piece ("2010 World Cup $10-million ‘bribe’: SA left out even as $201-million returned to Fifa") at AmaBhungane Center for Journalism, won the Vodacom Journalist of the Year (sports category) in 2023 investigates possible corruption and governance is issues at South Africa Football Association (SAFA).

Find the books, links, and articles we mentioned in this episode on our website, ufahamuafrica.com.

It’s never too late to pay attention to what is happening in Sudan. The international community should be supporting everyday people’s needs as they navigate this humanitarian disaster and should also be supporting a way forward out of the war.

We're re-upping our conversation with Nisrin Elamin about the conflict in Sudan. Elamin is an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto. Her work investigates the connections between land, race, belonging, and empire-making in Sudan and the broader Sahel region. 

We also bring updates on the news we're paying attention to this week, including an announcement about a new Center for Global Democracy at Cornell University, which will be led by our cohost Rachel Beatty Riedl as inaugural director! 

Find the books, links, and articles we mentioned in this episode on our website, ufahamuafrica.com.

Today we have an extremely timely French-language episode on Senegal and the newly elected president, which is hosted by one of our non-resident fellows, Expédit Ologou. He talks with Mamadou Seck, who is the regional manager of the Natural Resource Governance Institute for Francophone West Africa and Central Africa, and is based in Dakar. Seck's work oversees research in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea and Senegal.

Find the books, links, and articles we mentioned in this episode on our website, ufahamuafrica.com.