Faces of Africa

Africa, the last frontier, is a continent of diverse people, and a land rich in social and natural resources. But also because of its resources, the continent has been ravaged by slavery, plundered by colonizers, and has been badly affected by serval post-colonial conflicts. All these left a history of horrific violence, widespread poverty, and many of these countries are in need of good leadershi...

Zhao Tian'an is the head of a Chinese construction project in Lesotho. His company, Zhongnan Engineering Corporation, is building a new hospital on top of the original foundation of The Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, which has been out of service since 2011.

Cape Town has been a melting pot for people from around the world for centuries. Ever since apartheid ended in 1949, the city has been luring more and more people from other parts of the continent. In a central suburb of Cape Town called Observatory, a group of children is preparing for a lesson in the form of an unusual physical activity, one that was virtually unknown in South Africa until the l...

Chobe National Park in Northern Botswana is home to some of Africa’s most magnificent bush and wildlife. Hippos, crocodiles, lions, and a diverse bird life thrive here. It hosts one of the largest elephant concentrations on the continent. For nearly fifty years, only one lodge operates on the banks of the river. This is the Chobe Game Lodge. Here, a dedicated team of guides shares the area's rich...

At the foothills of the Uluguru Mountains in Tanzania, a small organization has adopted a groundbreaking and unusual approach in tackling two of Africa’s most deadly epidemics - landmines and tuberculosis. At their headquarters, APOPO breeds African giant pouched rats and trains them to sniff out landmines that still scatter post conflict countries and to pick out positive TB samples that clinics...

Access to health care is a serious challenge in Africa. Hospitals and clinics often find it difficult to employ enough trained medical staff to cope with the number of people needing care. Those living in rural areas are the most affected. While specialists are available, many patients cannot afford treatment. According to international charities, almost 800 children on the continent die every day...

Eritrea is a region steeped in ancient empires and history. In many ways, the best way to understand this country for a window into its soul is to understand its obsession with the bike.

Winning the Nobel Peace Prize and signing Kenya's peace accord are two momentous events that define the life and times of Kofi Atta Annan. One was the apex of a civil service career spanning over five decades and the second what he did post-retirement. Arguably one of the most iconic African global statesman, Kofi's international civil service career still continues to captivate the diplomatic wor...

Lusaka is one of the fastest developing cities in Africa. It is home to nearly two million people full of dreams for the big city in a quiet suburb. Yamwisha Muyunda is part of a vibrant, self-motivated ensemble called the Afro Jazz. The group consists of young musicians from Lusaka. They are millennials that have integrated selfies and Instagram into the classical music scene. It is often hard fo...

There are more than eight drowning incidents for every 100,000 people in Africa, one of the highest single causes of death in the world, according to the World Health Organization report of 2015. Local statistics from the same period suggest more people die through drowning than through traffic accidents in Ghana, with over three quarters of the casualties being children under the age of fifteen y...

At 5,895 meters, Kilimanjaro is the highest free-standing mountain in the world, and one of the several natural wonders of the world. While thousands come from all over the world and have a thousand different reasons to climb Kilimanjaro, for Ugandan Jaffar Amin and Tanzanian Madaraka Nyerere, this is more than a potentially deadly challenge to reach the top. Their climb is a journey of peace, of...

Natural beauty, rich history, edge culture, two oceans, this could only be Cape Town, South Africa, the mother city as it's known, and we're here to find its most famous adopted son, which shouldn't be hard as his name or image can be found almost everywhere. It’s on the road signs, in the art. It's even on the tips of tourists tongues. Nelson Mandela is now very much a part of the local tourist c...

Natural beauty, rich history, edge culture, two oceans, this could only be Cape Town, South Africa, the mother city as it's known, and we're here to find its most famous adopted son, which shouldn't be hard as his name or image can be found almost everywhere. It’s on the road signs, in the art. It's even on the tips of tourists tongues. Nelson Mandela is now very much a part of the local tourist c...

The volcanic island of Reunion, rising over 300m from the ocean, is a hiker's paradise. Patrice Zulme is a Hiking Guide who accompanies clients to remote parts of the island. His destinations include the Mafate volcanic circle, named after a leader of the so-called Marrons, or escaped slaves. Reunion is increasingly threatened by overdevelopment, increased tourism and overpopulation.

It's four o'clock in the morning, deep in the Kenyan bush. Men and women with a mission are preparing for another grueling day. This is not the army or the police, but a team of paramilitary officers who dedicated their careers to a global cause.

It is dawn here in Nairobi today and hundreds of thousands of the city's inhabitants are on the move. This is Kenya's capital, the hub of east and central Africa. A magnet since its early days for those seeking opportunities and a better life, but it is also a city of contrast where the haves and have-nots rush past each other. In Loresho, a leafy suburb of Nairobi, aviator, rally driver and entre...

Water is life. Seventy percent of the earth surface is covered with water. Life on earth is depended on healthy oceans. And our entire marine eco-system is under severer stress.

Water is life. Seventy percent of the earth surface is covered with water. Life on earth is depended on healthy oceans. And our entire marine eco-system is under severer stress.

Coronation Day in Shashemene, Ethiopia, is the day the Rastafarians celebrate the crowning of Haile Selassie as emperor of Ethiopia in 1930. Their name Rastafarians or Rastafari comes from Haile Selassie's name before his coronation - Ras Tafari.

An ordinary day in Abeokuta in Western Nigeria, Chief Obasanjo is attending visitors to his presidential library complex. It is this buzzy nation that Chief Obasanjo has been ruling as a president until 2007. Retirement in his home area Abeokuta seems not to be the option. Among other things, he has working on his presidential library building that has a permanent exhibition of his life history an...

David de Villiers, is a master seaman. Based in Cape Town in South Africa, sailing is his life. David believes that the ocean around this historic city is particularly special.

The bright lights of the catwalk, fashion capitals of the world, where beautiful models strut their stuff. It is here that budding and established designers gather. But before they graced the runways, some of them led an ordinary existence. One such story is that of Mpule Kwelagobe, a girl from Botswana who dared to dream.

Mogadishu, capital of Somalia, is being called the most dangerous place on earth. For more than 20 years, the country has been wrecked by a bitter civil war. But today, things are changing. A fragile peace is holding, and there's hope that the long-standing conflict is finally reaching its end. But while for many here, life is getting better, for some, it's getting worse.

When Isabel's son Yani was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, she decided to open the association Colmeia to offer a safe haven for children like him in Cape Verde. The association has become the face of intellectual disabilities in a country where stigma is rife.

Wangari Maathai was recognized across the globe as a warrior for the environment and a campaigner for human rights. Widely known just by her first name Wangari, she was responsible for planting more than thirty million trees across Africa in her lifetime. But she did much more than simply plant trees.