The media should show Africa some love
In his book Don't Africa Me, Nigerian-born Paschal Eze, a former newspaper editor, criticizes the media for ignoring the positive news coming out of Africa. Marco Visscher | October 2008 issue Paschal Eze, author of Don't Africa Me. Photo: Sandra Dyas How do the media damage Africa’s Read More...
From here to Africa
People trying to help the poor are often targets of criticism. They are not effective, their intentions are not pure. But once you've witnessed desperation in fellow humans' eyes, things change. Ralf Bodelier | May 2006 issue If Veronica Kuchikonde hadn’t called that November evening in 1999 I Read More...
How Africa developed the West
Without Africa's wealth and resources, the West would not have prospered. A conversation on the Western debt to Africa.Marco Visscher | March 2006 issue In the late 17th century when Dutch traders returned home from Africa and described their impressions of a region of Africa in what is now Read More...
Let peace and justice ring
In Africa, cell phones call for social change Andi McDaniel | April 2006 Read More...
Chasing the Cheetahs
More than 40 percent of Africa’s people are under 15—and they’re getting ready to change the way the continent works. Vijay Mahajan | September 2008 issue In the centre of Harare, Zimbabwe, a two-story retail shop is filled to the brim with the hopes of African parents for their children. Read More...
Interview with Vijay Mahajan
Ode checks in with Vijay Mahajan, author of Africa Rising: How 900 Million African Consumers Offer More Than You Think, of which you’ll find an exclusive excerpt in the October 2008 issue. Brigid Marshall | September 2008 issue Why did you want to write about Africa’s consumer market? “When Read More...
They all can fly
South Africa's Zip Zap Circus works to end racial segregation and foster trust, dedication and teamwork. Fred De Vries| April 2008 issue A circus? Twelve-year-old Andiswa Nkebendu, raised by her mother in the notorious Khayelitsha township near Cape Town, South Africa, had never heard of such a Read More...
The keys to courage
How Mama Zula saved 100 people's lives Lekha Singh | November 2007 issue “It was a Friday,” she says, “it was sometime in April.” The militiamen were burning houses. One neighbour’s house after another was going up in flames. The men, women and children who rushed out of the burning Read More...
The chance for new beginnings
Nineteen eighty-six Nobel Peace Prize-winner Desmond Tutu talks to Ode about the necessity for forgiveness. Lekha Singh | December 2006 issue The Most Reverend Desmond Mpilo Tutu stands out as a man of conviction and compassion. Raised and educated under the racist South African government, as a Read More...
Healing the Africa within us
"Africa has been waiting to be discovered with the eyes of a lover." Ben Okri declares his love to Africa. Ben Okri | September 2004 issue Heart-shaped Africa is the feeling centre of the world. Continents are metaphors as much as they are places. And a people are spiritual states of humanity as Read More...