Guest blogs
Building an Open Platform for Radio Reporting in West Africa
Adam Thomas of Sourcefabric for World Radio Day, 2013 “There are conflicting accounts of the turn of events on the diplomatic front in the long-running Ivorian standoff, with reports that embattled president Laurent Gbagbo is ready to surrender.” Those were the words...
The Many Sounds of Radio
Mary Myers for World Radio Day, 2013 My love of radio started in Mali in the early 1990’s in a small community station in Douentza in the arid Sahel, not far from Mopti. Radio Douentza was one of the first independent community radios in Mali, operating on a very...
International Tom Hanks Day
It’s the tenth anniversary of International Tom Hanks Day. It’s founder, Kevin Turk, has some fun things planned this year. Find out how you can get involved.
African Innovator of the Month
A Shining Role Model for ICT Women in Africa At just 25 Clarisse Iribagize has created one of the leading mobile technology companies in Rwanda. In 2012 she won an Apprentice-style reality show for Africa, winning US$50,000 and this year her company won the Transform...
LIFTing the Lifeplayer MP3 in Zambia
Meet the Educational Broadcasting Services (EBS) team. This dedicated group of women and men are behind the Learning at Taonga Market primary distance education programme in Zambia. We’re partnering with EBS for a three-year research project that will analyse the...
Not the Picture the Brochure Painted – Mozambique in 1993
In 1993, just a year after the peace accords ended a brutal civil war where a million people were killed and five million were displaced, I took a mini-break in Maputo. I was working in the private sector in Johannesburg back then and couldn’t resist a holiday by the sea.
My Oh So Amazing Week in Zambia
DAY 1 - Energy poverty in your face (4 October) The BA flight from London touched down right on time at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport, just as the brilliant hot African sun was rising. The pilot announced that it might take longer than usual to exit the...
Starting All Over Again in Zimbabwe
Although they’re located just to the north of us in South Africa, I hadn’t been to Zimbabwe since 2003. Back then I was involved in providing our radios for a local language soap opera drama to help communities learn about health issues…
What About Including Women in Africa’s Transformation?
I left the closing plenary of the World Economic Forum on Africa in Addis Ababa last Friday with a profound sense of optimism. Josette Sheeran, the Forum's new vice-chairman, moderated a wonderfully inspirational panel with African Young Global Leaders and Global...
Whirlwinds Of Change
When the London cabbie driving me to Paddington on Sunday asked where I was going and I replied that I was headed to Ethiopia, he said ‘What’s it like there now, is everyone still starving? Perceptions, it seems, aren’t easy to erase.