Category Archives: Africa

The state of investigative journalism in Nigeria

The abstract of a paper titled ‘Investigative Journalism and Scandal Reporting in the Nigerian Press’ by Muhammad Jameel Yusha’u: Using interviews conducted with Nigerian journalists, this article explores Nigerian journalists’ understandings of investigative journalism, and whether they use it to investigate the allegations of corruption scandals against various public officeholders. The results show that Nigerian… Read More »

On political leadership and anthropology: AIDS in South Africa

Keith Hart writes: The contrast between Zuma and Mbeki could hardly be greater, a tribal chieftain in the mould of Bolingbroke or Henry Tudor against Mbeki’s Othello, a man happy to be photographed dancing in Zulu warrior gear versus the austere western intellectual with his stiff suits and goatee beard. The number of Zuma’s wives,… Read More »

Chairman of Nigeria’s ruling party arrested on corruption charges

BBC: The chairman of Nigeria’s governing party, Vincent Ogbulafor, has been charged with fraud. Mr Ogbulafor is accused of fraudulently awarding $1.5m (£1m) in federal funds when he was a government minister under President Olusegun Obasanjo. He denies the charges but if convicted, Mr Ogbulafor would have to resign. Correspondents say the case is being… Read More »

Achebe writes a book on the Nigerian civil war

I just read this on the Nigerian Village Square: The literary world is abuzz with the news that Achebe in 2010, on the fiftieth anniversary of Nigeria’s independence, and the fortieth anniversary of the end of the Biafran war; is working on a major opus – Reflections on the Nigerian Civil War 1967-1970. It will… Read More »

Guardian editorial on Welcome to Lagos

The scheduling has done this documentary series no favours. Welcome to Lagos has coincided each Thursday night with an event, the TV debate between the three party leaders, which has not only turned this election on its head, but which may have changed politics in this country forever. If you can ignore history being made… Read More »