Africa Here and NOW

A tiny slice of South Africa's semi-arid Karoo region was painstakingly recreated at this year's Chelsea Flower Show in London. It was the first time such an ambitious project had been undertaken to display the world-famous Karoo succulents at Chelsea's annual Festival of Flowers and Plants. I caught up with ERNST VAN JARSVELDT a master botanist who spent a lifetime nurturing these hardy plants an...

PETER OBI believes he would have been Nigeria’s president now, were it not for widespread vote rigging at the last election in 2023. It’s a view shared by many of his fellow countrymen and women. In a wide-ranging interview with Africa Here And Now MR OBI confirms that he plans to run again in 2027 and believes that this time the outcome will be different. He says he’s optimistic that people will...

Has the shine come off the idea of democracy in parts of Africa? The continent's latest crop of military leaders seem to be enjoying immense popularity, like Burkina Faso's Captain Ibrahim Traore. So are Africans prepared to live under the rule of soldiers. Or is there another way? I speak to GILLES YABI, CEO and founder of the West Africa Citizen Think Tank in Dakar. And in Johannesburg, independ...

Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool discusses the recent efforts to reset relations between South Africa and the United States. President Ramaphosa's recent visit to the White House was a success, the ambassador says. He reflects on the challenges faced during his tenure as ambassador, including the backlash from the Trump administration and the influence of powerful South African figures in the US. He does...

Why has Burkina Faso's military leader, IBRAHIM TRAORE, garnered such adulation? That's a question for the renowned investigative journalist, DAVID HUNDEYIN who replies that the young captain, he's just 37, symbolises s break from the status quo and offers hop to a youthful continent whose people yearn for a hero. Who, or what, is behind the social media tsunami that surrounds CAPTAIN TRAORE? We c...

TITLE: Gaza, Should Africans Care?  Pro- Palestine Cornell Student Who Fled US Talks to Africa Here & Now Tags:Africa, Palestine, Israel, activism, geopolitics, youth, solidarity, African Union, Arab League, liberation  We explore Africa's historical support for the Palestinian cause with MOMODOU TAAL, the 31-year-old British Gambian graduate student who fled the US before he was dep...

I meet Bobi Wine as he visits London. He’s seeking support for his campaign to rid Uganda of what he calls the ‘ brutal rulership’ of President Yoweri Museveni who will have led the country for 40 years in 2026. That’s when Uganda is scheduled to hold its next presidential election.   Will Bobi run again? ‘Here I am,’ he says, ‘Not that I’m the Alpha and Omega, not that I’m the ultimate. But...

We look at recent events in Zimbabwe and the formation of the March 31 movement and ask how significant a threat it presents to President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Dr BLESSING-MILES TENDI, a politics professor at Oxford University, is the author of The Overthrow of Robert Mugabe - Gender, Coups, and Diplomats. He takes us through the complex political landscape of Zimbabwe today as well as the historica...

Marketing guru THEBE IKALAFENG reflects on the current tensions in US-South African relations and suggests that by stopping US aid, President Trump is presenting the continent with a golden opportunity. It's time, Thebe says, for African countries to leverage their resources better and understand their value. The end of western aid should lead to new economic strategies and add urgency to the impl...

Nico Ali Walsh, the grandson of the legendary Muhammad Ali, shares his journey into boxing, the emotional connection with his grandfather, and the challenges he faces in the sport. He discusses the legacy of the Ali family, the expectations placed upon him and how his faith influences him. Nico talks openly about the dangers of boxing and details a severe injury he sustained that took months to re...

In this EXCLUSIVE interview with the last emperor of Ethiopia's favourite grandson, we learn the detail of HAILE SELASSIE's overthrow by the military in 1974. When the soldiers came , PRINCE BE'EDE MARIAM, who lived in the imperial palace, volunteered to stay with his grandpa so he wouldn't be alone. Other members of the family left the country. The teenaged prince paid dearly for that act of loya...

Amidst the global disruption being wreaked by the Trump administration, a new man takes the helm of the African Union. Expectations are high as the continent faces a complex mix of challenges: an increase in the number of conflicts, the damaging impact of climate change, growing poverty and inequality and the shift in global power dynamics. Djiboutian MAHMOUD ALI YOUSSOUF has an overflowing in-tra...

We go back to 1993 when the plane carrying Zambia’s national football team crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Gabon. Zambia is the only country in the world to have lost its national football team in a plane crash. Journalist and author JAY MWEMBA has detailed the events surrounding the tragedy in his book ‘The Crash of the Buffalo’. Former Nigerian Super Eagle, EFAN EKOKU joined us...

Prominent Nigerian political activist and lawyer, an arch advocate of human rights and good governance, DELE FAROTIMI, speaks to Africa Here and Now about his experience of being imprisoned because he accused a powerful senior lawyer of corruption.     The allegation is that in his latest book, DELE FAROTIMI, defames a senior legal luminary AFE BABALOLA by accusing him of subverting just...

In this special year ender, as we round off season 3 of Africa Here and NOW, we look back at some of the moments that made us smile. The former Nigerian Super Eagle, footballer EFAN EKOKU, made us laugh with his cheeky bet on the winning team in the Africa Cup of Nations. Then Ghanaian football pundit, GARY AL SMITH, encouraged DONU into revealing what really lays behind the infamous rivalry betwe...

We speak to Ghanaian academic and political analyst, DR MICHAEL AMOAH, about his country's impressive record of holding orderly elections that lead to peaceful transitions of power. It's a record that's all the more impressive when compared with many of Ghana's neighbours. So JOHN MAHAMA returns to power - he served one term in 2012-2016 - and we discuss his to-do list. First up, we hear, he needs...

As climate talks enter their second week in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, MICHAEL USI, Malawi's Vice President, says it's time to get serious about past pledges. And Kenyan pastoralist CHARLES EKALELE tells us why those pledges matter. Changing weather patterns in Turkana County are making people in his community poorer. Africa's Last Colony. As the US, Spain and most recently France add their suppo...

As Botswana's new government begins its work, former president IAN KHAMA, reflects on the big political changes in his country as the party of independence - his father's party - the BDP is swept away. He discusses the current state of his country, with high unemployment, low growth and a widening gap between rich and poor. He outlines possible first steps for the new UDC administration of preside...

We ask political analyst, ADAM MFUNDISI, about the challenges ahead for Botswana's new president DUMA BOKO. He tells us the country is in 'an undeclared recession' brought about by lacklustre diamond sales and corruption. Sudan's war is having horrifying effects on the country's people. The UN has called it 'the world's greatest modern-day famine' with at least 1.5 million people on the brink of s...

Africa here and Now's PATRICK SMITH has rocked up in Gaborone to gauge the mood in diamond-rich Botswana as people prepare to vote. He finds that this month's election could present the most serious challenge to the ruling party's almost 60 years in power. Have the books been cooked in Mozambique's election? The stakes are high, a $150billion gas project is on the cards. Somaliland- the breakaway...

Talk at this year's General Assembly about reforming the UN has gathered pace. Meeting in the shadow of war: Sudan, Ukraine and the Middle East, the idea of changing the makeup of the Security Council took on more urgency. Support for Africa to get two permanent seats on the Council has grown. We asked Kenya's former UN ambassador, MARTIN KIMANI, if and when that's likely to happen. Ambassador Kim...

The complex web of hostilities in the Horn deepen as Egyptian troops prepare to enter Somalia on peacekeeping duties. Ethiopia makes clear its opposition. Some are warning of a coming proxy war fuelled by Ethio-Egyptian animosity. We get the views of Mogadishu-based journalist MOHAMMED SHEIKH NOR. How would a second Trump administration deal with Africa? A question for former Trump Africa ambassad...

Can Africa's leaders gathering in Beijing for the Forum on the China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) get more out of the relationship than in the past? Historically, China has imported African raw commodities with little or nothing added to the value of the metals and minerals. Now, with demand on the rise for Africa's vast supply of critical metals and minerals that are vital for the transition to net...

Legendary Ghanaian artist, ABLADE GLOVER, talks exclusively to Africa Here and Now on the occasion of his 90th birthday and the opening of his 10th exhibition at London’s October Gallery, Inner Worlds, Outer Journeys. He takes us through seven decades of loading his palette knife with oils to create dense, mainly urban scenes. He explains his love of Accra life and the hustle and bustle. His work...

We talk to ADAMA GAYE, former ECOWAS director of communications, and journalist and Chatham House consulting fellow, PAUL MELLY about the West African bloc’s future as Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali form their own breakaway group. Adama tells us the 15 member ECOWAS is facing a ‘death threat’ because of the loss of three of its founding countries. Senegal’s new president BASSIROU DIOMAYE FAYE i...