Spotlight on Africa

This week in Spotlight on Africa, we look at climate change, environmental justice and the challenges of adaptation. While Europe's heatwaves make headlines, temperatures are also climbing across Africa, with parts of the Sahel approaching 50°C. West Africa is also experiencing severe flooding caused by climate change. Yet Africa is also a source of innovation and solutions, as we'll be discussing...

This week, Spotlight on Africa turns to the Great Lakes region. First, a new Global Witness report reveals how coltan is being smuggled out of the Democratic Republic of Congo, amid the ongoing conflict in the east, through Rwanda and on to companies worldwide. Then, artist Grada Kilomba discusses her journey to create a unique monument for Paris commemorating the 1994 Rwandan genocide.   This mon...

This week, Spotlight on Africa explores cinema and music scoring for African documentary projects with storytellers from Mozambique and Kenya. We will also bring you news from the Cannes Film Festival, along with the African teams selected to take part in the football World Cup. The next time you watch a nature documentary filmed in Africa, listen carefully to the soundtrack: you might be hearing...

This week, Spotlight on Africa explores cinema and music scoring for African documentary projects with storytellers from Mozambique and Kenya. We will also bring you news from the Cannes Film Festival, along with the African teams selected to take part in the football World Cup. The next time you watch a nature documentary filmed in Africa, listen carefully to the soundtrack: you might be hearing...

As attacks from jihadist groups allied to Tuaregs continue in Mali, global jihadism threatens Africa like no other region on earth, according to ACLED's latest report. With the organisation's expert on West Africa, Spotlight on Africa explores how jihadist groups are expanding across the continent, controlling territory, targeting civilians and disrupting infrastructure. Coordinated attacks by Tua...

This week, Spotlight on Africa takes you to the 'Africa Forward' summit, hosted by France and Kenya in Nairobi on the 11th and 12th of May. It marks the first time Paris has staged such an event in an English-speaking African country -  and it comes at a moment of significant change and considerable challenges. Joining Kenyan President William Ruto at the summit, French President Emmanuel Macron i...

As a major exhibition retracing how music from Africa, the Caribbean and North America merged to make a distinctly British sound opens in London, Spotlight on Africa looks at a century of black music in the diaspora. V&A East, the latest offshoot of the world-renowned Victoria & Albert Museum, opened in Stratford – the area regenerated by London's 2012 Olympic Games – on 18 April.  Its ina...

This week in Spotlight on Africa: Sudan’s war enters its fourth year, with no sign of easing since fighting erupted on 15 April 2023. The conflict is intensifying, amid fresh accusations of foreign interference – most recently involving Ethiopia. The conflict, now nearing its three-year mark, has already killed tens of thousands, displaced more than eleven million people and created what the UN de...

In Kenya, charities are working with landlords to fight gender-based violence – in particular the domestic violence experienced by women living in overcrowded, impoverished areas. In Kibera, one of the largest informal settlements in Africa, in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, the NGO CFK Africa has begun helping landlords to spot and respond to domestic violence and sexual assault.   Siama Yusuf, seni...

US and Israeli attacks on Iran are raising concerns across Africa, from security risks in the Horn of Africa to economic pressures and fears for migrant workers in the Gulf. They also come as West African countries step up cooperation against spreading jihadist violence. In this week’s Spotlight on Africa podcast, we speak to Nigeria’s presidential adviser Sunday Dare and Africa analyst Heni Nsaib...

African Heads of State convened for the 2026 African Union Summit last month at a critical time for the continent, amid escalating conflicts and democratic backsliding. This episode examines the AU's relationship with the United Nations, the European Union and the United States, and its place within a fractured global order. At the 39th African Union (AU) Summit in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capit...

In this episode of Spotlight on Africa, we're looking at the race for critical minerals on the continent. In the first week of February, around forty African delegations were invited to Washington DC for a summit dedicated to the issue. The leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo appear keen to sign deals, but much of the rest of Africa has been calling for better proposals and more robust mec...

In the episode, we examine recent US strikes in northern Nigeria and explore the experiences of the US African diaspora in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Nigeria has endured years of violence from extremist groups such as Boko Haram, but there is growing debate over whether a US intervention is the appropriate response. Meanwhile, in the US, many immigrants say they feel under threat as enforcement actio...

In this first episode of Spotlight on Africa for 2026, we look back at a very eventful first three weeks of January. We focus on the recent general elections in Uganda, Israel's recognition of Somaliland, and how both could have implications for the entire East Africa region and beyond. Over 21 million Ugandan citizens were called to the polls last Thursday in the country's general elections. Incu...

In this new episode of Spotlight on Africa, we explore perspectives on African history - from across the continent with UNESCO, which has just released the final three volumes of its General History of Africa, and from the Congo, through the insights of artist and filmmaker Sammy Baloji. For this final episode of 2025, we look back at the full sweep of the African continent’s history. Sixty years...

In this new episode of Spotlight on Africa, we hear from Sudanese people fleeing the atrocities in El Fasher. We also reflect on a year of South Africa’s presidency of the G20, which held its final major summit of the year this weekend in Johannesburg. And, in the final segment of the episode, we turn to the world of the arts. In Sudan, the UN’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, said last week tha...

In this week’s edition of Spotlight on Africa, we look back at the recent elections in Tanzania. We’ll then head to London and Paris for a look at some outstanding African film festivals. You’ll also hear from South Sudan’s blind football team, who have just won a crucial match. Finally, we have an interview with Angélique Kidjo, introducing her brand-new song Chica de Favela, inspired by Brazil!...

Ivorians voted on Saturday to choose their next president, in what is being seen as the most important election in West Africa. Côte d’Ivoire remains the region’s most stable and economically prosperous nation, and the last close ally of its former colonial power, France. Yet despite recent economic growth, the vast majority of people continue to struggle. In this episode, we speak to Ivorians abo...

Côte d'Ivoire's presidential election campaign is taking shape, with four challengers hoping to defeat longtime incumbent Alassane Ouattara in the 25 October vote, but no candidates from the country's two main opposition parties. For Spotlight on Africa, analyst Paul Melly underlines that the run-up has so far been peaceful, but that voters could be disengaging from politics, in response to the la...

With more than two million Algerians and people of Algerian heritage living in France – the country’s former colonial power in North Africa – a smaller community of roughly 35,000 has made its home in the United Kingdom. In 2022, Rachida Lamri founded the DZ Fest, a cultural festival designed to celebrate and showcase Algerian traditions in English. RFI was present at this year's event. DZ Fest is...

In this episode of Spotlight in Africa, we discuss the forthcoming presidential election in Cameroon, before turning our attention to Nigeria. We also explore ways to strengthen relations between South Africa and the United States, with a particular focus on improving conditions for seasonal migrant workers. Cameroonians are set to go to the polls for the presidential election on 12 October, but t...

Spotlight on Africa returns after the summer break. In this episode, we travel first to Rwanda and then on to Malawi. We begin by examining how the United States, along with some European powers, is looking to third countries in Africa to take in illegal migrants, with particular focus on Rwanda. We then move to Malawi to explore how one village is now running entirely on solar energy. Rwanda rece...

This season of Spotlight on Africa concludes ahead of the summer break with a focus on Frantz Fanon in the year of his centenary. It also highlights a groundbreaking new report by UNESCO on the state of the publishing industry across the continent. This week, we begin in Harlem, New York City, USA, with Rico Speight, a film and theatre director. His film, Rediscovering Fanon, was screened in Paris...

In this episode, Spotlight on Africa reviews the origins of protests in Kenya against police brutality. And you'll also hear from the co-founders of the Africa Basel contemporary art fair, in Switzerland, the newest event of its kind.  This week, we go to East Africa where Kenyans are protesting to denounce police brutality, exactly a year after a wave of protests organised against an unjust tax,...

In East Africa, politicians and civil society members are increasingly alarmed by political arrests, as opposition figure Tundu Lissu remains imprisoned in Tanzania, facing the death penalty in a trial that continues to be repeatedly postponed. In this week's Spotlight on Africa podcast, we hear from Robert Amsterdam, legal counsel to Lissu and other prominent figures. We also look at the first co...