Archive for the ‘West Africa’ Category
Naomi Blood Diamond Campbell?
I’m watching the live feed of the Taylor trial happening in The Hague. I’m sitting at my hotel in Freetown, with a few Sierra Leonean staff, as a defense lawyer drags out what sounds like character assassination against someone I’ve never heard of (and possibly also against Mia Farrow?) in order to un-assassinate Campbell’s character.
We [...]
In Sierra Leone, things are exactly as normal as they appear
In Freetown recently, I came face to face with something that made me a believer: a trash truck.
A believer in what? That depends on what or whom you credit with the appearance of the trash truck. A newly buoyant national government? A streamlined UN better supporting national needs? Aid? Whatever [...]
The White Reporter’s Burden in Africa II: Journalists who get over it
In an effort to be productive in my criticism, here are nearly two dozen or so Western journalists I think do good work in Africa.
This all started with Phil Bronstein’s Easterly-inflected praise of the courage of Nick Kristof to admit “that there is a white man’s burden in reporting on Africa.” That’s the wrong [...]
On wads of crisp, clean West African cash
Today I withdrew cash at a bank in Freetown. A dollar here is worth almost 4,000 leones, and the largest bill they print is 10,000. “Wait until you smell the money,” people always tell me before I come here. It’s true, or it was: money so dirty it had a special scent [...]
How to bring peace to Africa
Okay, I have no idea. That’s a teaser, one designed especially for Twitter. Sometimes, it takes a bit of cyberwhoring to get a click or two…
I actually have no idea how to bring peace anywhere, but I want to know. Which is why I’m spending these coming months wandering around Africa for [...]
Boozing it up in the ‘third world’?: The mix tape
Update, after I got out from under my rock
In one of the very active comments sections on the blogs that have taken this up, someone accused Nick Kristof of living under a rock. Accused is a strong word. ‘Asked if he did’ is better.
I have been the cyber equivalent of living under a [...]
I am a freelance journalist and multimedia producer who covers human rights, Africa and foreign affairs. [