Conversations about Foreign Policy and World Affairs
Benin is a geographically small country in West Africa, located between Nigeria and Togo. Since the 1990s Benin has earned a reputation as a strong and stable multiparty democracy.
However, that has all changed in recent years and Benin is in the midst of democratic backsliding ahead of elections in which opposition parties have been sidelined.
On the line with me from Benin is Jose Biaou, the spokesperson for the Alliance Patriotic de Nouvelle Espoir — The New Hope Patriotic Alliance.
Mali is in the midst of its worst political crisis in years. Since June, protesters have gathered in the streets of the capital city of Bamako demanding the resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. On top of this, a conflict in the northern part of the country, to which the UN has deployed a large peacekeeping mission, is continuing to drive instability throughout the country.
My guest, Dr. Amadou Bocoum, is the Mali Director for the NGO Search for Common Ground and I caught up with him from Bamako, the capital city which is in the South.
In our conversation, Amadou Bocoum describes how these protests were sparked by a court decision to annul the results of parliamentary elections. But as he explains, the discontent that is driving these protests runs much deeper.
This is a useful conversation about a crisis that is very much unfolding at the present time — and is one that is of profound regional and international significance.
Today’s episode is supported in part from a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to showcase African voices in peace and security issues.
Burundi’s longtime ruler Pierre Nkurunziza died suddenly on June 8th, quite possibly from COVID-19. Nkurunziza has been president of Burundi since 2005, and in recent years his rule became firmly authoritarian. His death sent shockwaves across Africa and the world
On the line with me today is Yolande Bouka, a professor of political studies at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. We discuss the legacy of Pierre Nkurunziza and what this chaotic moment means for Burundi and the surrounding region.
We kick off discussing the circumstances surrounding Nkurunziza’s death. We then discuss his fraught time in power, including a key moment in 2015, when he engineered for himself a constitutionally dubious third term in office and survived a coup attempt. The conflict surrounding that episode lead to the displacement of 400,000 people — the impact of which is being felt across the region today. We also discuss the background of the new president of Burundi, Évariste Ndayishimiye and what his rule may bring for the country.
Community Health Workers can promote peace and conflict resolution. That is the conclusion that sociologist Dr. Roseanne Njiru reaches from ground breaking research conducted in Nairobi, Kenya. Dr. Njiru conducted fieldwork in marginalized communities, or urban slums, to find that health workers who are from these communities can play important roles beyond health. Specifically, she found that these health workers are preventing conflict at the local level–often in ways invisible to outsiders.
Dr. Njiru is on the Global Dispatches podcast to discuss her research into the link between community health workers and conflict prevention.
This episode is part of a series of episodes supported in part from a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York to feature African perspectives on peace and security issues in Africa.
