Africa

In Tahrir

The Egyptian revolution, viewed from the center of Cairo.

Can Technology End Poverty?

Many development experts promote information and communication technology (ICT) as a way to relieve global poverty. They should pay more attention to the human beings who use it.

Africa Calling

Can mobile phones make a miracle?

Biography and the Bench

Albie Sachs’s The Strange Alchemy of Life and Law

Is It Africa’s Turn?

Progress in the world’s poorest region.

Justify the Enemy

Becoming human in South Africa.

Within Reach of the State

Though both the victims and perpetrators of human rights violations on African soil have been Africans, the pursuit of justice has been conducted largely by international institutions.

Homeland

The new generation of Nigerian writers.

France’s Revolt

Can the Republic live up to its ideals?

Freedom Railway

The unexpected successes of a Cold War development project.

Best Intentions

The story of Tanzania’s people’s park.

Tragedy in Darfur

On understanding and ending the horror.

Healing Rwanda

Can an international court deliver justice?

The Wrong Lessons

The vanishing legacy of Operation Restore Hope.

Justice or Therapy?

Deabtes on how to heal from the Rwandan genocide. 

The Legacies of Collective Violence

The Rwandan genocide and the limits of law.

Trading Truth for Justice?

South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Identity Politics

Forced deportations threaten to turn the Ethiopian-Eritrean border conflict into ethnic war.

Constitution-Making in South Africa

The process illustrates a refreshing jurisprudence, at once principled and pragmatic.

A Matter of State

On the most important treason trial in South Africa in three decades.

Homelands

Behind South Africa’s battle lines.

Get our newsletter

Vital reading on politics, ideas, and culture to your inbox


A political and literary forum, independent and nonprofit since 1975

Registered 501(c)(3) organization