Bonus: Zimbabwe’s 2023 Elections

“Few were surprised as, near midnight on August 26, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announced incumbent president Emmerson Mnangagwa’s reelection in yet another of Zimbabwe’s tendentious contests,” writes David B. Moore. “His inauguration on September 4 sanctified his return to power.” In this article by Moore, first published in The Conversation Africa, he explains how the Read More…

Bonus: Emmanuel Balogun’s review of “The Political Life of an Epidemic”

In this bonus recording, hear Ufahamu Africa host Kim Dionne read Emmanuel Balogun’s (@Ea_Balogun) review of  “The Political Life of an Epidemic,” written by Simukai Chigudu (@SimuChigudu), a professor of politics at Oxford University.  The review was published in this past Friday’s installment of the African Politics Summer Reading Spectacular (#APSRS20), and this recording is being shared as part of a collaboration with The Monkey Cage (@monkeycageblog), a blog on politics and political science at The Washington Post.

Ep. 77: A conversation on agriculture and innovation in Africa with YALI Mandela Fellows

This week’s episode opens up with discussion about the recent elections in Botswana and Mozambique, the anti-sanctions protests in Zimbabwe, post-peace prize Ethiopia, and more. 

Co-host Rachel Beatty Riedl moderates this week’s conversation on agriculture and innovation in Africa. Our guests are Kudzai Kutukwa, Kitso Dube, and Andrew Dillon. Kudzai and Kitso were YALI Mandela Fellows at Northwestern University earlier this year, when this conversation was recorded.

Kudzai is the co-founder and CEO of Mobbisurance, which is a startup that develops multi-based crop insurance products and other financial services for small-holder farmers. Kitso currently serves as a loan officer for FBC Holdings, helping communities that are marginalized access financial services in Zimbabwe. Andrew is a development economist, appointed as a Clinical Associate Professor within the Kellogg School of Management’s Public-Private Interface Initiative and a Research Associate Professor in the Global Poverty Research Lab at the Buffett Institute. The panel discussion begins at 12:36.

Ep. 62: A conversation with Khalid Medani on protests in Sudan

We begin this week’s episode discussing protests and democracy in Benin, the damage from Cyclone Idai in Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe, and the consequences of climate change more broadly. Our featured conversation is with Khalid Medani, an Associate Professor of Political Science and Islamic Studies and the Chair of the African Studies Program at McGill University. He has published widely on the on the roots of civil conflict and the funding of the Islamic movement in Sudan, the question of informal finance and terrorism in Somalia, the obstacles to state building in Iraq, and the role of informal networks in the rise of Islamic militancy. He provides insights on the current protests in Sudan and puts them in context. His conversation begins at 10:02. 

Ep. 53: A conversation with Beth Whitaker on Africa’s international relations

This week’s episode begins with a discussion of protests and repression in Zimbabwe, the terror attack in Nairobi, Kenya, Senegal’s upcoming election, and the re-launch of the Africa Online Digital Library. Our guest this week is Beth Whitaker, an associate professor of political science at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. Her research examines migration and security issues in Africa. We spoke with her about her new book, Africa’s International Relations: Balancing Domestic and Global Interests during the annual meeting of the African Studies Association in Atlanta, Georgia in November 2018. Some topics we cover include diaspora voting (especially in Kenya) and refugees. Our conversation begins at 10:25.

Ep. 43: A conversation with Jennifer Kyker about the mbira, gender, and more

Welcome back to Ufahamu Africa. This week’s episode is the first in Season 3. We are excited to announce a new co-host, Rachel Beatty Riedl (@BeattyRiedl), an associate professor of political science and director of the Program of African Studies at Northwestern University. We’ve also brought back the weekly roundup of things we’re learning and reading about the continent to open the episode.

This week’s episode features a conversation with Jennifer Kyker, an associate professor of music and of ethnomusicology at the University of Rochester. We talk about the mbira, an instrument you’ll hear featured in this week’s episode. Kyker is the author of a book on popular music in postcolonial Zimbabwe, Oliver Mtukudzi: Living Tuku Music in Zimbabwe, published by Indiana University Press. Our chat begins at 6:44.

Ep. 42: A conversation with author Petina Gappah on politics, writing, and more

This week’s episode features Petina Gappah, a writer and international lawyer from Zimbabwe. Thanks to the efforts of Chipo Dendere, Petina visited the Five Colleges earlier this year and we had a chance to sit down and talk. In addition to chatting about her forthcoming historical novel on David Livingstone’s companions, we talk about Gappah’s award-winning book The Book of Memory, and her two collections of short stories, An Elegy for Easterly and Rotten Row. In our conversation, she shares why she became a writer and her approach to writing. 

Ep. 37: A conversation with Dr. George Karekwaivanane on the struggle for power in Zimbabwe

This week’s episode features a conversation with Dr. George Karekwaivanane (@ghkare). Dr. Karekwaivanane is a lecturer in African Studies at the University of Edinburgh and the author of The Struggle over State Power in Zimbabwe: Law and Politics Since 1950, recently published by Cambridge University Press. I spoke with George last week at the annual meeting of the African Studies Association in Chicago.

Ep. 10: Conversations with Zimbabwean scholars on citizen responses to economic decline

This week we chat with three scholars in the diaspora about recent episodes of civil unrest in Zimbabwe. Dr. Chipo Dendere (@drDendere) of Gettysburg College gives us an overview of the recent protests in Zimbabwe and shares insights from her research on remittances and politics. Melusi Nkomo (@MelusiNkomoZim), fellow at Harvard University’s Center for African Read More…