For author, businessman and analyst Moeletsi Mbeki, South Africa's ruling party is part of the problem, not part of the solution. He is critical of the inaction of President Cyril Ramaphosa, and says that the ruling ANC is now just a job distribution machine. Are the conditions uniting for a South African Spring ..read more

Ethiopia is asking itself some tough political questions at the moment. We speak to writer Maaza Mengiste, whose powerful historical fiction may be just the tonic to heal festering wounds. Especially those surrounding the 'what' and the 'who' of a nation ..read more

What do Angolans think about their new president João Lourenço? Are the reforms sticking? Are there green shoots in the energy sector. Plus we talk about the flood of money into Nigeria's fintech sector ..read more

Trump's America, Putin's Russia and Xie's China all testing the very limits of the multilateral system. As one of the United Nation's leading diplomats, Nigeria's Tijjani Muhammad-Bande is trying to remind the world of the virtues of facing global problems in a collective fashion. Elected President of 74th session of the UN General Assembly, he has his work cut out for him; from climate change to security in the Sahel, to helping build consensus around global tax evasion and the International Criminal Court ..read more

Nigeria is in need of new ideas to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow, from rural grazing areas, to community policing. Kayode Fayemi, the Governor of Ekiti State, and the Chair of the Nigeria Governors' Forum, hopes to provide them. He wants to pinpoint the good ideas that might emerge in any one state – from policing, to education, to agriculture, to tax collection and supporting entrepreneurs – and generalise that best practise to all 36 states ..read more

On 12 August, Zambians go to the polls to vote in their next president. Zambia’s ruling party, the Patriotic Front, confirmed Edgar Lungu in April as its candidate in this year's polls. With electoral campaigns now open since 21 May, 19 candidates have so far presented themselves as contenders against Lungu. But one man in particular is looking to take over from the incumbent president. He's hoping the sixth time will be a charm. In this week's Talking Africa, we speak to Hakainde Hichilema, Zambia's main opposition candidate, of the United Party for National Development. For more, head t ..read more

Mark Suzman is the CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He sits astride one of the biggest charitable endeavours on the planet, a $50bn endowment that has in the last 18 months thrown itself at the Covid-19 pandemic, funding all manner of research and vaccine trials, and now the COVAX scheme itself. In this conversation with Nicholas Norbrook, he talks through the thorny nature of global collective action problems, and why the world should fund African vaccines shots to avoid a costly new Covid-19 variant ..read more

What next for Al Shabaab, the insurgent group that attacked Palma in the northern Mozambique province of Cabo Delgado in March? Is South Africa on the hook financially and now militarily? What has a decade of drug money done to local politics? Dino Mahtani, International Crisis Group's Deputy Director for Africa, takes us on a deep dive into Mozambique's thorny security imbroglio. With Nicholas Norbrook and Patrick Smith ..read more

Former cabinet minister, co-ordinator of the #BringBankOurGirls campaign, VP at the World Bank... the multi-talented Obiageli Ezekwesili discusses why Nigeria's political elite missed a golden moment to create a nation, rather than just a country. For more, head to www.theafricareport.com ..read more

The European Union has an ambitious trillion dollar plan to slash emissions by over 50% from 1990 levels by 2030. This can present opportunities to African countries... but also threats. Will it lock African farmers out of EU markets? Will it lock finance out of dirty energy projects too soon? Zainab Usman of the Carnegie Endowment and Olumide Abimbola of the Africa Policy Research Centre join The Africa's Report's Nicholas Norbrook ..read more