Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe, whose death was announced on Friday, was in power for 37 years, but is far from the only African leader to have ruled for so long. Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema is Africa’s longest-serving president currently in power after …
Read More »Mugabe and the West: a love-hate affair
Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | He came to power as a Mao-jacketed revolutionary, charmed the West with his policy of racial reconciliation, adopted stylish Saville Row suits and was knighted by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth. But Zimbabwean ex-president Robert Mugabe, who has died aged 95, ended his life stripped of his honorary …
Read More »Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s ruthless ex-president, dies aged 95
Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Robert Mugabe, the former guerrilla leader who held onto power in Zimbabwe for 37 years until forced out by the military with the economy mired in crisis, has died aged 95, the country’s president announced Friday. “It is with the utmost sadness that I announce the passing …
Read More »Muslim children get Catholic education in flexible Madagascar
Antsiranana, Madagascar | AFP | The bell of St. John’s Catholic high school, next to the cathedral in Antsiranana in northern Madagascar, sounds for the noon break, and hundreds of students pour into the street. Among them is Michael Beafara. With his schoolbag on his back, he hails a tuk-tuk taxi, …
Read More »MUGABE: Zimbabwe liberation hero turned despot
Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Robert Mugabe, who has died aged 95, used repression and fear to hold on to power in Zimbabwe for 37 years until he was finally ousted when his previously loyal military generals turned against him. After his humiliating fall from office in November 2017, his …
Read More »Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe dies aged 95
Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP |Robert Mugabe, who led Zimbabwe with an iron fist from 1980 to 2017, has died aged 95, the country’s president announced Friday. First heralded as a liberator who rid the former British colony of Rhodesia of white minority rule, Mugabe used repression and fear to hold …
Read More »Chess offers Nigerian slum children new move
Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Crowds of children bustle around chessboards in Nigeria’s Lagos, figuring out their next moves as part of a project aimed at bringing hope in one of the city’s impoverished slums. Dozens of matches are played simultaneously as participants as young as three master a game often …
Read More »Lesotho, Africa’s medical cannabis pioneer
Marakabei, Lesotho | AFP | Vast white greenhouses sit high up on the slopes of Lesotho’s Marakabei town, hidden from view. It’s not fruit or vegetables, however, growing under the 18 plastic covers, but thousands of cannabis plants. The cannabis is grown legally by the Lesotho-based company Medigrow and is regulated …
Read More »Disappointment for Beira cyclone victims hoping for Pope Francis visit
Beira, Mozambique | AFP | Maria da Paz prays silently on a pew near the altar of Beira cathedral. Tonight, as on many other nights, she wants to give thanks for simply being alive. In March, Cyclone Idai roared across Mozambique’s second city, bringing floods that killed more than 600 people …
Read More »South Africa vows crackdown on xenophobic attacks after five die
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | Five people have been killed in a surge of xenophobic violence in South Africa, police said on Tuesday, as President Cyril Ramaphosa vowed to clamp down and the African Union, Nigeria and Zambia condemned the attacks. Hordes of people — some armed with axes and …
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