The clash between the modern and the traditional is illustrated by the “reed dance.” Performed by “maidens” in the semi-nude, it is widespread among the Ndebele people, including Xhosas and Zulus, in southern Africa. It is perhaps best known in Swaziland, where the king chooses a new wife every year following the annual reed dance.

The Biden administration is in the midst of a North Korea policy review that will shape prospects for diplomacy and the relative priority of North Korea on Biden’s to-do list. Perhaps the earliest an…

Each Friday this summer, we suggest foreign-policy-themed movies worth watching. This week: films that feature journalists.

At a rugby stadium in Pretoria on May 25, Cyril Ramaphosa was sworn in as South Africa’s fourth democratically elected president since 1994. The U.S. presidential delegation to the inauguration was headed by Kimberly A. Reed, the president of the Export-Import Bank.

In Africa and elsewhere, COVID-19 dominates media attention. Yet malaria has probably killed four times as many as COVID-19 over the last year in Africa. The good news is that early trials of a new vaccine, R21, show an effectiveness rate of 77 percent. The new vaccine is a further development of Mosquirix, a vaccine with a 56 percent effectiveness after one year, falling to 36 percent after four years.