By NAKURU, Kenya
 

Francis Muriu (c) explains to the chief (brown checked shirt) how a resident saved him when thugs raided his home and locked him in a house. / Daniel Sitole/IPS

Daniel Sitole, Feb 2 (IPS) – Using 140 characters or less, Chief Francis Kariuki in Kenya, has tweeted his way to reducing crime in his [...]

By Andrew Green*

During the Lord's Resistance Army's insurgency in northern Uganda, John Lacambel hosted a programme on Mega FM encouraging soldiers to return home. / Will Boase/IPS

GULU, Uganda, Feb 1 (IPS) – Radio Mega FM’s transmission tower rises from the centre of Gulu town, transmitting talk shows and the latest Ugandan radio hits to listeners [...]

By Ngala Killian Chimtom

The reunification monument in Yaounde. Anglophone Cameroonians say they do not feel like equal partners with their Francophone counterparts. / Ngala Killian Chimtom

YAOUNDE, Jan 26 (IPS) – When Cameroon’s President Paul Biya announced that the 50th anniversary of the reunification of French and British Cameroon will take place later this year, [...]

By Claire Ngozo

Vice President Joyce Banda (r) and Minister of Gender Reen Kachere (l) at a meeting to condemn the abuse of women by the vendors. / Claire Ngozo/IPS

LILONGWE, Jan 25 (IPS) – A campaign to stop people buying merchandise from street vendors is gaining momentum in Malawi’s main cities of Lilongwe, Blantyre [...]

By Ngala Killian Chimtom

BPA-free baby bottle. / Photostock

YAOUNDÉ, Jan 6 (IPS) – Maya Stella, a restaurant manager in the capital of Cameroon, no longer uses plastic to wrap the corn-fufu that she sells to her customers. She now uses banana or plantain leaves instead, because these are "natural and it is our African [...]

By Simba Russeau
CAIRO, Dec 7 (IPS) – The ability of artists to lyrically articulate the growing rage amongst disgruntled youth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has seen the emergence of politicised rap as a hidden weapon during the region’s Arab Spring.

Music has always played a pivotal role in many of the world’s [...]

By Inês Santinhos Gonçalves* – IPS/Street News Service

Isaac Nwankwere, who escaped from Nigeria, sells the Augustin street paper in Austria. / Mario Lang/Augustin

CARDIFF, UK, Jun 7 (IPS) – The reasons why people become street paper vendors are many and diverse. Some are homeless; others suffer mental or physical health problems, struggle with addiction or [...]

Links between the three countries extend beyond economics and geopolitics.

By A. D. McKenzie

“While nations spend colossal sums of money on peace-keeping missions in violent conflict areas of the world, little attention is given to theatre as a one-on-one alternative for conflict transformation and management,” said Jessica Kaahwa, a Ugandan playwright known for using theatre to foster community development.

By Johannes Myburgh

XAI-XAI, Mozambique, Mar 14 (IPS) – In two rooms in a small Mozambican coastal town, 70 women are cutting, weaving and packaging fabric carpets destined for stores in Denmark, Brazil and South Africa.

Two years ago they gave life to Brazilian-born Danish designer Carla Botosso’s idea to produce carpets with an intricate knitting technique called Mescla which Botosso developed during her studies at the prestigious Danish Design School.

Millions of South Sudanese hope the referendum on separation from the north will consolidate gains made since the 2005 peace treaty.

Holding her one-year-old son in one hand and a hoe in the other, Mary Kimani recounts with bitterness how she lost her livelihood upon her her husband’s death.

Marshall Patsanza interviews THEMBENI MADLOPHA-MTHETHWA, the female mayor of a rural town in northern KwaZulu Natal.

Thembeni Madlopha-Mthethwa, the IFP mayor of Jozini, says gender is not a limiting factor when it comes to leadership. / Marshall Patsanza/IPS

JOHANNESBURG, Oct 4 (IPS) – In the rural KwaZulu Natal town of Jozini, Thembeni Madlopha-Mthethwa has been the [...]

By Antoaneta Becker
LONDON, Sep 27 (IPS) – Irked by accusations that it is the new coloniser of Africa, China is looking to use soft power and historical evidence of its ancient links to the continent to justify its economic embrace of Africa.

Chinese archaeologists have been sent to hunt for a long-lost shipwreck off the Kenya [...]

By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Sep 8 (IPS) – Damián López, of Argentina, has been riding his bicycle the length of the Americas for the past three years. His mission? In addition to completing the long journey, he wants to shine the spotlight on children who are at risk due to violence or abandonment.

"The bicycle is [...]