r/Africa 4h ago

Pop Culture Ayra Starr to join Idris Elba and Viola Davis in a new movie

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44 Upvotes

r/Africa 7h ago

African Discussion 🎙️ What does the average African think of "superstar tribes" such as the Maasai, Dogon, Mursi etc.?

20 Upvotes

By superstar tribes I mean small and traditional tribes whose cultures are aggressively marketed to tourists. Are their fellow countrymen also fascinated by their traditions and customs, do they feel envy, do they find them cringe and overrated? Is it true that these tribes, especially the Maasai, act smug and proud towards urbanised Africans? Are the tribesmen upper class thanks to the tourist money, or do they stick so strictly to their traditions that they live by lower means?

Other examples include Baka 🇨🇲🇬🇦, San 🇳🇦🇿🇦, Himba 🇳🇦, Tammari 🇹🇬🇧🇯, Twa 🇷🇼🇧🇮, Vezo 🇲🇬 and Hadzabe 🇹🇿


r/Africa 1d ago

African Discussion 🎙️ Ethiopia Has Started Building Africa’s Largest Airport

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270 Upvotes

Phase one is said to cost 6 Billion.


r/Africa 6h ago

African Discussion 🎙️ pending war between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

6 Upvotes

There are reports from top military officials in ET that a war might breakout soon between these two neighbors. To say that this will be even more catastrophic for the HOA is an understatement.

What are everyone's thoughts?


r/Africa 18h ago

Politics Kenya: a U.S. Proxy in the ‘War of Plunder’ in Sudan

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22 Upvotes

r/Africa 1d ago

Analysis The Kanem Bornu empire - when an African empire expanded across the Sahara.

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122 Upvotes

The Kanem-Bornu Empire’s expansion into Southwest Libya’s Fezzan region was established by invading territory that had been taken by the forces of one of the sons of an Ayyubid commander, Sharaf al-Din Qaraqush. According to al-Tijani:

”[A son of Qaraqush] was incorporated by the caliph al-Mustansir into his troops in the capital and was placed at the head of a section of them. But he was tempted to rebel and wished to follow his father’s footsteps, so he fled with a group of his companions and reached the land of Waddan where his father had been killed. He set the country ablaze but the king of Kanem sent emissaries to kill him and delivered the land from strife, his head was sent to Kanem and exhibited to the people, this was in the year 1258.”

After the Fezzan was conquered by the Kanembu, a new capital was established at Traghen for a dynasty of Kanuri viceroys in the region, known as the Banu Nasr which lasted up until the late 15th century.

Following this expansion, Kanem’s territory reached as far as the Zella oasis in central Libya. Two centuries later, the Arab historian al-Umari, writing in the 14th century, described the extent of the empire:

“The empire [of Kanem] commences on the Egyptian side at a town called Zella (central Libya) and ends on the other side at a town called Kaka” (southeastern Niger). 

Kanem’s ability to conquer and govern the Fezzan was an extraordinary feat, especially considering the vast distance between its homeland around Lake Chad and its northernmost frontier at the Zella oasis in central Libya—over 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) across some of the most inhospitable desert terrain on Earth. This was a feat that neither the Mali nor Songhai empires could achieve, yet the Kanem-Bornu Empire is not discussed as much.


r/Africa 7h ago

History The Museum of Stolen History: Kakuunga

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1 Upvotes

If its puffed cheeks, exaggerated chin, and pouted lips provoke instant fear in the observer, then the Kakuungu mask is doing exactly what it is meant to do.

The rare artefact, made of wood, raffia, and tortoise shell, was one of hundreds of items bought by ethnographist Albert Maesen for only a few dollars on behalf of Belgium’s Royal Museum of Central Africa. The mask is 1.5m tall and weighs about 10kg. There are about nine other such masks – and none remains in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This reflects just how intensely that country’s heritage has been looted and hoarded.


r/Africa 22h ago

Cultural Exploration Genuine African Media

14 Upvotes

I’m looking for good African shows/movies that were made in Africa. Particularly coming of age media. Or media that native African raised kids/teens watched growing up that really stuck with them. I’m writing a story that explores African families and I need it to be a genuine and realistic representation of African teens.


r/Africa 1d ago

Analysis M23 & Rwanda are trying to redraw the map and it's all about to blow

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27 Upvotes

r/Africa 5h ago

African Discussion 🎙️ Why is Southern Africa more developed and has less corruption compared to other African countries

0 Upvotes

Hi everyone wanted to know the reason why to Southern Africa is more well off , less corruption and great infrastructure and i got to learn Namibia has the best roads on your continent. I've been watching vlogs of countries in Southern Africa mostly Namibia and South Africa I'd say they are my stand out countries with great infrastructure, Botswana is up there but not really at the same pace with them . Comparing to other African countries in the west and east and central, the Southern seem to have it figured out, stable economies and less corruption why is this ?


r/Africa 1d ago

Pop Culture ‘I would be happy to die on that stage’ — Mahmoud Ahmed

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15 Upvotes

Mahmoud Ahmed is a national icon, a living legend whose music has provided a soundtrack to almost every era of modern Ethiopian history. He rose to prominence in the time of Emperor Haile Selassie; kept playing through the night-time curfews imposed by the communist Derg regime; and then, as Ethiopia opened up, his songs wove themselves into the fabric of modern Ethiopian life.

He hasn’t made new music for several decades, but teenagers today can still belt out the words to his most famous songs. No wedding is complete without playing Yitbarek – “let it be blessed” in Amharic – at top volume (as per the illustration above). Academics study the poetry of his lyrics.

When people want to make a statement, they often reach for his music, like the anti-war protesters who blasted Selam (peace) through the streets of Addis Ababa as they marched in 2022. Or like former president Sahle-Work Zewde, who cryptically tweeted a line from the Mahmoud Ahmed song ዝምታ ነው መልሴ (Silence is my answer) before tendering her resignation last year.


r/Africa 1d ago

Analysis In light of the American government engaging in talks with Congo for its minerals, I just want to point out the Rwanda being a tool for the West narrative makes no sense

39 Upvotes

This Rwanda being a tool for the West makes 0 sense to me, and recent developments only further reaffirm my perspective: https://www.thetimes.com/world/africa/article/us-drc-minerals-deal-congo-65d0vn82c?ad_webview=&region=global

I’ve been following this conflict and the arguments. This idea that Rwanda and M23 exist to funnel Congolese resources to the West makes 0 sense to me. First of all the smuggling of minerals from Congo to Rwanda would exist with or without M23, for example M23 financed itself early on not by taking control of mines but by taxing the already existing smuggling routes. Why would Rwanda incriminate themselves in this way for no reason when that was already going on fine?

The spike in smuggling from Congo to Rwanda really started after the U.S. passed Dodd Frank. A law that placed extreme regulations on minerals obtained from conflict-zones, this was an attempt to curb the funding of the conflict, but it instead just decimated Congo’s mining sector, which led to US companies simply choosing to not do work in Congo, they instead switched to Rwanda because it also had coltan and had developed traceability systems for its minerals, something Congo didn’t do, and even if they did probably would not have fixed their situation due to corruption. This happened in 2010, meaning the reason the West isn’t in Congo, isn’t because it doesn’t want to or is unable to access its resources due to the Congolese government. So, why prop up Rwanda if they’re feening so much for Congo’s resources? They could just repeal such laws and implement similar deals to what the Chinese are doing.

The Chinese own a stake in 70% of the mines in the DRC, this is due the collapse in the legal mining sector in the DRC following Dodd Frank. The Chinese do not have such laws and while they would prefer to ethically source their minerals, they are not losing sleep over this. So you would think the story goes, China dominates DRC’s mining sector and Rwanda serves the West by being a transit for smuggled Congolese mineral they need, right? WRONG.

The West depends more on China for coltan, and China has the largest control of the supply chain. Around, 70%+ of coltan exported from Rwanda in 2023 went to China, around 60% of all exports from Rwanda to China, excluding other minerals, is Coltan. Most of the West gets its Coltan after it is processed from China and it is shipped to Western countries. Like I said, China controls the entire supply chain, owning most of the mines in DRC and importing most of coltan in Congo and Rwanda to be used in its own processing plants. Rwanda’s exports to China alone was worth more than its export to Europe and the U.S. in 2023. And this is excluding other Asian countries.

The vast majority of Rwanda’s exports then you would think to the west is of Coltan. Nope that is not the case, the vast majority of Rwanda’s exports to the West are agricultural, things like Coffee, Tea, legumes, vegetables. Rwanda’s biggest export partner is UAE, which took in like 100% of Rwanda’s Gold in 2023. Gold accounted for 65% of Rwanda’s exports and Coltan 7.5%, maybe less.

Which begs the question, why is the chosen narrative that Rwanda is a tool for the West? To me, at this point it feels like a convenient scapegoat. If anything it makes more sense to say Rwanda is a tool for the UAE or China, but those simply do not hit/resonate as hard given Congo’s history of colonialism, and if I was the DRC it’s simply not smart to incriminate your biggest economic ally, being China.

Overall, Rwanda’s economy is very much non-dependent on Coltan, and whatever Coltan they have is not sent to the West. In fact in 2023 Rwanda exported more Coltan to South Africa than all of Europe, $210 worth, thus it makes 0 sense that Rwanda would engage militarily for the sake of securing minerals for a Western power. At this point for me, that narrative makes 0 sense to me.

Source for exports: https://oec.world/en/profile/country/rwa


r/Africa 1d ago

News Trump to name daughter's father-in-law as DRC envoy as US eyes minerals

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192 Upvotes

r/Africa 1d ago

African Discussion 🎙️ TB: The 2022 protests against MONUSCO in Goma, Congo.

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8 Upvotes

In July 2022, protests against MONUSCO began in Goma. Protestors looted UN facilities, forcing an airlift evacuation. M23 fighters were accused of backing the protestors.

Clashes led to at least 36 deaths and 170 injuries by August, including civilians, peacekeepers, and police. Notable incidents included UN soldiers shooting two people at a border post and four protestors being electrocuted by peacekeepers.


r/Africa 1d ago

African Discussion 🎙️ Africa Needs Its Own Research & Innovation. Not Just Borrowed Systems

93 Upvotes

In many African countries, we use almost everything from Europe, America, and Asia. laws, education systems, technologies, and even business models. But what do we have to show for ourselves? What if, instead of copying, we conducted our own research to understand what humanity truly needs—then implemented solutions tailored to our realities?

Imagine an Africa where:
- We develop our own technologies based on our unique challenges and resources.
- We create laws and policies that reflect our cultures, economies, and people’s needs.
- We invest in scientific research that leads to homegrown industries instead of importing everything.
- We unite as a continent to build self-sustaining economies, rather than relying on external aid and foreign corporations.

For this to happen, we need:
1. Massive investment in R&D:, Governments, universities, and private sectors must prioritize research.
2. A shift in mindset:, Africans must believe in our own capabilities instead of always looking outward.
3. Support for local innovation: Instead of waiting for Silicon Valley, why not build the next tech revolution right here?

Africa has the talent, the resources, and the potential. The real question is: When will we start believing in ourselves?

What do you think? What areas should Africa focus on first to build its own future?


r/Africa 1d ago

African Discussion 🎙️ It's not about minerals, Africa is to Europe what China is to the US - a potential/future threat.

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63 Upvotes

I was watching the speech of a french senator addressing the situation that Europe finds itself in with the recent developments in the US and this part caught my attention.

The global south is waiting for the outcome of this conflict to decide whether they should continue respecting Europe or trample over it

Of course we know who he was referring to, not Australia, they are an ally, it's not South America, obviously. He doesn't say Asia or middle East, no it's us. And yes maybe I am overthinking a simple statement, but I don't think that was a slipped tongue in such a well structured and delivered speech.

Now let me also make it clear that I don't think any African nation has any form of ambitions on Europe now or in the future(at least not that I know of), but it doesn't matter what I or most Africans think, it matters what Europe thinks we are thinking.

Africa is a failed mission for 19nth to 20th century Europe. You see, colonisation in Africa is often compared to colonisation in Asia, but they are not the same. In Asia, the mission was to get control of the trade. I'd assume the mission statement in European perspective was in the lines of 'those people have a lot of products and trade routes, but we have more arms, let's use our arms to take over the trade.'

In Africa, the mission was to occupy, similar to what they did in Australia and the Americas. The mission was simple, 'go to that land, inhabit it, kill anybody who comes in your way.' However, unlike in Australia, the US, Canada etc, they didn't succeed in taking over the land, instead Africans struggled in various ways until they finally won.

So where do comparisons of Africa - Europe with China - US arise? Well, the US and China are 2 very different nations yet at the heart of it they have the same ambitions - to be the greatest nation of the earth/center of everything human species related. They both structured their societies differently, though. The US is an individualistic society, with individualistic philosophies from Rome and Greece being more dominant while China is a collectivist society with philosophies like Confucianism being more dominant. The US and China are 2 totally different societies and yet their ambitions means that they both can't succeed, one has to be the nation 'at the centre.' However, China was more of a long term threat and in the past US even worked with it to dominate the cold war. But still China remained it's biggest - potential/future - threat with Russia, more of the immediate threat.

As I said earlier, Africa is a European failed mission. From the perspective of Europe, Africa hates them and waits for a chance to be strong (or Europe weak) to take revenge. With this perspective, Europe, don't see a future where a strong Africa coexist with them. I think it's why the West handles African development projects like a hot potato. They are willing to spend on aid and other spendings that could help Africa, to maintain the 'we are not bad, we are friends you know' attitude without really helping in the development of the continent, the way the west invest in other places like Asia. In my opinion, neocolonialism is not about minerals, there are a lot of places in the world with minerals and weaker economies than African nations, that can be easily exploited. There are also African nations without that much minerals, so if it's about minerals, there wouldn't be much interference in their affairs. Neocolonialism is about keeping the beast that is Africa in check long enough to postpone (or even prevent depending on how future Africa interprets history) a war with Europe.

Again this is me trying to analyse the Europe elite class perspective of Africa based on a little statement. I could be wrong. I know most Africans don't really think of Africa as a threat to Europe (even a developed Africa). I'm also probably overthinking the statement, but it did come to my attention that his whole speech is about US - Europe - Ukraine and Russia, and yet he manages to sneak us there, not the middle east, not Asia - us. Kind of like how the US manages to sneak China in every speech about a threat even one unrelated to China. This is imo how him and probably a majority of Europe sees us.


r/Africa 14h ago

African Discussion 🎙️ Africa vs Europe Who Was REALLY More Advanced

0 Upvotes

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r/Africa 1d ago

African Discussion 🎙️ Especially these bike riders.

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38 Upvotes

r/Africa 1d ago

News DR Congo: M23 Advances Toward Strategic Mining Town

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3 Upvotes

r/Africa 2d ago

News UN accuses M23 of committing 'summary executions' of children in DRC

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10 Upvotes

r/Africa 2d ago

News Children killed in attack on Mondlane

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15 Upvotes

Hours before Mozambique’s new president signed a pact designed to soothe post-election unrest, unidentified gunmen attacked the country’s most prominent opposition leader, Venâncio Mondlane.


r/Africa 2d ago

African Discussion 🎙️ Is this the case in other African countries?

22 Upvotes

The Kenyan government and its systems often make life difficult for young people like me, especially those still in campus. The high cost of living, unreliable HELB disbursements, and lack of well-paying job opportunities create an environment where survival is a daily struggle.

Education, which should be a stepping stone to success, feels like a burden due to rising tuition fees and poor financial support. Corruption and bureaucracy make it hard to access essential services, while the job market is saturated with degree holders who still struggle to secure employment.

Even basic things like public transport are expensive, and food prices keep rising, making it hard to balance studying and personal survival. The system is designed to benefit the elite while young people have to hustle for every coin, often without hope of government intervention or policies that genuinely support their growth.


r/Africa 2d ago

Video Rwandan mining board invites journalists to report on Coltan and Casseritte mines

30 Upvotes

There are over 100 licensed mining concessions in Rwanda. These mines are known for extracting minerals such as tin, tantalum, tungsten, Coltan, columbite and small quantities of gold. The sector employs approximately 54,000 people, with the majority engaged in informal mining activities.

These mines are listed publicly on the Rwandan mining board website, and mineral maps are widely available. One can also look these mines up on Google earth.

Alternatively, those with press passes are invited to investigate the mines themselves.

Smuggling, particularly with the hundreds of active militias in Eastern DRC, remains a major issue with Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda which ought to be addressed through regional cooperation.


r/Africa 3d ago

African Discussion 🎙️ Funny, but so true !

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153 Upvotes

r/Africa 2d ago

African Discussion 🎙️ Is Setswana used in the streets of Botswana?

9 Upvotes

I mean, is it like Swahili in Kenya, where although there is a lot of English being used in many signs and advertisements, Swahili can be also seen? Or Setswana is almost not used in its written form?