Ufahamu Africa

Coups are on our minds this week, especially with recent events in Burkina Faso and Guinea-Bissau. Kim and Rachel talk about their own views on "coup contagion" and how their perspectives have changed over time. Then, Kim talks to coup expert Naunihal Singh, who breaks down what coups are, shares how he began studying them, and what we should know about what's happening on the conti...

Bamba Ndiaye is a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society for the Humanities and the Music Department at Cornell, and also our guest this week! He's at work on a book project called "Black Social Movement and Digital Technology," and we talk to him about democracy in Senegal, his work on "neo pan-Africanism," and more! Books, Links, & Articles The Africanist Podcast...

As fans of the Scope Conditions podcast, we're excited to share this interview with Yang-Yang Zhou, one of the hosts of the show. Scope Conditions features cutting-edge research in comparative politics from across the world, so we took this opportunity to talk to Zhou about her own cutting-edge work studying the effects of migrants on host communities. Take a listen to this great conversation...

African legal scholar Nkatha Kabira joins us this week for a conversation about the past, present, and future of African law. Kabira is a lecturer at the University of Nairobi and was the fall 2021 Distinguished Africanist Scholar at Cornell University's Institute for African Development .  In our conversation, Kabira shares her vision for a conference on the future of law in Africa and makes...

Welcome back to a new year of Ufahamu Africa! Kim and Rachel talk about some of your and our favorite episodes of 2021, the big events that affected Africa in 2021, and more!  Books, Links, & Articles Ufahamu Africa on Foreign Policy Playlist The Lawfare Podcast: Making Sense of the Crisis in Ethiopia " The Enemy in Her Imagination: A Fable " by   Elleni Centime Zeleke " Take th...

We're excited to announce our 2021-22 non-resident fellows: Chido Nyaruwata, Wanjiku Ngugi, Samah Fawzi, and team Soinato Leboo and Gretchen Walch. On this episode, they introduce themselves and, of course, share what they're reading! You'll hear more from them throughout season 6, including episodes created and produced by each of them. In the news wrap, Kim and Rachel talk about t...

Judd Devermont and Nicole Wilett from "49," a new podcast from the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), join us this week to offer Africa policy recommendations for the Biden administration and to share their process of fitting hundreds of pages of historical research into five-minute podcast segments. Judd Devermont is the Director of the Africa Program at CSIS and w...

Ufahamu Africa is a podcast about life and politics on the African continent, co-hosted by Kim Yi Dionne , professor of political science at the University of California, Riverside, and Rachel Beatty Riedl , professor of government at Cornell University.  “Ufahamu” is a Kiswahili word that translates to “understanding” or “consciousness” in English. We seek to expand our collective understanding o...

In this bonus recording, hear Ufahamu Africa host Kim Yi Dionne read Laura Seay’s review of Shaping the Future of Power: Knowledge Production and Network-Building in China-Africa Relations , a book by Lina Benabdallah (@LBenabdallah). The review was published in last year's African Politics Summer Reading Spectacular (#APSRS20), and this recording is being shared as part of a collaboration wi...

Kim and Rachel close up Season 5 highlighting some of the major events on the continent and enjoying hearing some good news from friends of the podcast. Have a listen and you'll hear Grieve Chelwa, Anne Meng, TJ Tallie, Hilary Matfess, Judd Devermont, and Laura Smith share some great updates so we can celebrate some wins as we look back on this challenging year.  Find the books, links, and ar...

Alhousseini Diabate joins us this week for a conversation about land access and food access in West Africa, particularly in Mali. This version of the episode is dubbed in English, but the original episode was conducted between Rachel and Diabate in French. You can find the French version of the episode on ufahamuafrica.com. Don't forget to also send us recorded clips of you sharing your good...

Alhousseini Diabate joins us this week for a conversation about land access and food access in West Africa, particularly in Mali. Rachel interviews Diabate in French, but check out a dubbed version of the conversation in English on ufahamuafrica.com. Don't forget to also send us recorded clips of you sharing your good news with us! We will share everyone's good news in our upcoming seaso...

Joining us this week is Tarila Marclint Ebiede , adjunct assistant professor of international affairs at Brussels School of Governance , Brussels, Belgium. His research examines the reintegration of ex-combatants, political violence, the impact of violent conflicts on local governance, youth and violence, peacebuilding and security in Nigeria. We talk to him about his research, the recent news of...

Earlier this year, Liliane Umubyeyi and Amah Edoh joined Cornell University's Institute for European Studies to talk about their collaborative work on reparations, especially related to Belgium and the Democratic Republic of Congo. We share selected excerpts of their talk in this week's episode, and you can find a link to watch the full panel in this week's show notes.  In the news...

Hear more of our conversation with Nanjala Nyabola, continued from Ep. 113: A conversation with Nanjala Nyabola. In this podcast mash-up with Cornell University's Migrations: A World on the Move podcast. Their episode shares previously unaired parts of our conversation with Nanjala and Migrations postdoctoral fellow Eleanor Paynter. Nyabola's work and writing spans themes of migration, p...

In her book, Branding Humanity: Competing Narratives of Rights, Violence, and Global Citizenship , Amal Fadlalla writes about the Save Darfur movement and how it gained an international following. We bring her onto the show this week for a conversation about her work and her expertise in Sudan. In the news wrap, Kim and Rachel talk about global climate change, more updates from the Tigray region o...

Hear us on Foreign Policy Playlist this week when Rachel and Kim talk about Ufahamu Africa's vision and mission and the show features Kim's conversation about the genocide in Ethiopia's Tigray region with Dr. Goitom Gebreluel from episode 117. … More Hear Ufahamu Africa on Foreign Policy Playlist Find the books, links, and articles we mentioned in this episode on our website, ufaham...

Joining us this week is friend of the show, Zachariah Mampilly ! He speaks with Kim about researching and teaching African politics, as well as his Program on African Social Research (PASR) which supports junior African scholars as they work to publish in academic journals In the news wrap, Kim and Rachel talk about the Islamic State in Mozambique, news from Nigeria, and political updates in Côte...

In their upcoming book, "After the Arab Uprisings: Progress and Stagnation in the Middle East and North Africa," Shamiran Mako and Valentine Moghadam share their work on democracy and social transformation in North Africa after the Arab Spring. In an interview with Rachel, Mako and Moghadam talk about the six years of research leading up to the book and explain the four key frameworks of...

This week, we are re-airing Kim's interview with Ashley Currier , whose work looks at LGBT organizing in Africa. Currier spoke to Kim about her books, Out in Africa and Politicizing Sex in Contemporary Africa , visibility of African activists, and homophobia on the continent.  In the news this week: a coup in Mali, volcanic eruptions in eastern Congo, and reduced food rations in Rwandan refug...

As violence and unrest in the Tigray region of Ethiopia continues, we bring Goitom Gebreleul on the show. Gebreleul is a researcher in international and comparative politics of the Horn of Africa at Hatèta Policy Research. In his interview with Kim, he shares the evidence that this is a genocide and tells listeners what they can do to help. There's no news wrap this week, but you can still se...

Joining us this week are special guests Christina Cottiero, a political science PhD student at UC San Diego doing award-winning research on regional security issues in West Africa, and Expédit Ologou, the founder and president at the Civic Academy for Africa’s Future, an independent research think tank in Benin, and a Senior Political Governance Officer for the Benin Office of the Friedrich Ebert...

Robtel Neajai Pailey is a writer, activist, and academic whose recent book engages with the topic of citizenship in Africa, especially in Liberia. She joins Rachel for a great conversation about her work, the scholar-activists who influence and inspire her, and how to make our work ethical, emancipatory, and accessible. We conducted this interview on the sidelines of the 52nd Annual Liberian Studi...

Special guest Dan Eizenga, research fellow at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, joins us to share his expertise on Chad and the recent death of Idriss Déby. Listen to learn what happened, who is in charge of Chad now, and what it all means. In the news wrap, Kim and Rachel talk about new restrictions from the U.S. on Ugandan officials, share new resources like an edited volume on coronaviru...

In a special podcast mashup with Migrations: A World on the Move, hosted by Cornell postdoc Eleanor Paynter, we interview Nanjala Nyabola on human mobilities, asylum, vaccine nationalism, and activism that centers human experiences. Her new book, Travelling While Black, is a collection of essays on her experiences traveling to over 70 countries. Plus, she offers us a number of African novels on mi...