226 Results for:

June 9, 2022

Nigeria
Escalating Violence Is Putting Nigeria’s Future on the Line

Nigeria is experiencing a dramatic upsurge in everyday violence, including abductions, religiously motivated attacks, assaults by armed gangs, and police brutality. Authorities are failing to contain…

May 26, 2022

Nigeria
Reaction to “Blasphemy” Killing Illustrates Complicated Role of Religion in Nigeria’s Democratic Transition

Horrendous killing of college sophomore highlights the country’s ethnoreligious fault line, but interdenominational rivalry in the south is of no less moment. All in all, reactions to the murder of Ms. Deborah Yakubu, a 200-level home economics student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto, have exposed Nigeria’s deepest political fractures and lingering questions over citizenship, national identity, and secularity. On May 12, following disagreement over a WhatsApp voice note deemed to have been blasphemous against Islam and Prophet Muhammad, a mob comprising some of the twenty-two-year-old’s schoolmates brutally clubbed and stoned her to death, after which they proceeded to incinerate her body.

Pastor lectures with a microphone and gestures with his arm wearing a formal attire.

May 26, 2022

United States
Blinken’s China Strategy Speech, Colombia’s Presidential Election, and More

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken unveils the Biden administration’s China strategy, Colombians go to the polls for a presidential election, and Foreign Affairs magazine debuts its first podcast…

Podcast A family rides a motorcycle under a banner depicting Colombian presidential candidate for the Pacto Historico coalition Gustavo Petro and his running mate Francia Marquez, in her native town Suarez, Cauca department, Colombia, on May 25, 2022.

May 16, 2022

Nigeria
Gruesome “Blasphemy” Killing Brings Nigeria’s Long-Running Ethno-Religious Divide Into Sharp Focus

Last week’s gruesome murder of Deborah Yakubu, a home economics sophomore at the Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, comes at a time of escalating social and economic tension in Nigeria, and will most certainly raise the political stakes as the country enters electioneering season in preparation for next year’s presidential election.

A sign that reads "Higher Shariah Court," a child with a bucket in the background, and an old looking building.

April 18, 2022

West Africa
Under Threat: Democracy in Africa

Our panelists discuss the most recent rise in violent conflict and coups in Africa, the threats these coups pose to fragile democratic institutions, governance, and civil society, and options to prev…

Play National observers look on while electoral official organize votes during the closing of the polls in a polling station in the city of Bahir Dar, on June 21, 2021. - Ethiopia voted on June 21, 2021, in an election billed as the most democratic yet in Africa's second-most populous country, but taking place as famine blights its war-torn Tigray region.