Patrick Smith
People across the world, bar journalists, seem to want to live in less interesting times after the political conflagrations and shifting geopolitics of last year. There is no sign that this wish will be granted, even in Africa.The preoccupations of the We...
Patrick Smith
This week we start in Israel with the news that police have put mining magnate Beny Steinmetz under house arrest in connection with a probe into contracts for Guinea's gargantuan Simandou iron ore deposit. In Kinshasa tensions rise with the deadline for P...
Blue Lines
After a year of credible elections in Ghana and South Africa but rigged ones in Uganda, Gabon and Zambia, together with a raft of political and corporate corruption scandals, there will be a new focus on judicial systems. It was the independence of court ...
Patrick Smith
We start in Ghana where last week's well-run elections brought Nana Akufo-Addo the presidency and an orderly transition is under way. Much less orderly is Gambia where Yahya Jammeh has changed his mind about accepting electoral defeat and has triggered a ...
Patrick Smith
This week we hit the election trail: first to Ghana where over 15 million citizens are due to vote in presidential and parliamentary elections on Wednesday (7 December), and then to Gambia for the aftermath of the shock election defeat of President Yahya ...
Blue Lines
The funeral of Fidel Castro on 4 December is stirring up fiercely partisan reactions. But in Africa there is almost universal praise for the Cuban leader, especially his support for anti-colonial struggles and his despatch of some 50,000 doctors across th...
Patrick Smith
This week we start with Nigeria's governorship elections and South Africa's President Jacob Zuma facing yet another vote of confidence. Elections in Gambia and Somalia are also due conclude this week as the United States signals greater interest in milita...
Patrick Smith
We start in Nigeria where the central bank is holding critical meetings on interest rates and foreign exchange policy. After its budget last week, Zambian officials continue talks with the International Monetary Fund and political tensions rise in neighbo...
Blue Lines
African treasuries, cash-strapped after the commodity price crash, are trying to recoup their losses by launching law suits against multinational companies. The most sensational is a court ruling in Chad on 5 October that a consortium led by Exxon Mobil s...
Patrick Smith
This week we start again in the United States in search of the implications, direct and indirect, of Donald Trump's shock victory in the presidential election. In South Africa the African National Congress starts its run-up this week to picking its presid...
