There is a new man in South Africa,” proclaims a new ad splashed across South African media, aiming to transform ideas about sexuality and to enlist the nation’s men in the fight against AIDS. This new South African man’s “self...

The finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, told his compatriots to hang up their hopes for a speedy recovery on Monday, predicting South Africa’s recession would be deeper and longer lasting than that of other countries. “We are at a time when there is...

The European Union envoys on Thursday warned Kenya that their countries will help the International Criminal Court to deal with election violence suspects. They said the EU will extend the same kind of help to the ICC it gave in the case of the...

The BBC triggered an avalanche with its 100 Greatest Britons poll, won by Winston Churchill, in 2002. Other countries copied the format. The 10 greatest South Africans as voted by the public were, in alphabetical order, Dr Christiaan Barnard, F W De...

Eight years ago, the leaders of 189 countries pledged to work towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, eliminating extreme poverty by 2015. The Stand Up, Take Action Campaign mobilises millions of people around the world to press for action...

Mbeki’s carefully worked out compromise between Mugabe and Tsvangirai is on the edge of collapse after Mugabe unilaterally named ministers for the key departments of defence, which controls the army; home affairs, which controls the police; and...

I am writing this blog lying on my stomach in bed in Bujumbura. Although it is not an ideal posture for composing, it is one in which I can be in for an extended period of time without excessive pain. Apparently I injured my back during my travels to...

Police officers voting in Zimbabwe’s presidential run-off have been threatened with the firing squad if they defy an order to re-elect Robert Mugabe. Bulawayo police chiefs have warned junior officers they will be shot unless they pledge support...

Of all the eminent figures drafted from outside Labour politics into Gordon Brown’s “government of all the talents” last year, Lord Malloch-Brown, foreign office minister for Africa, Asia and the UN, probably had the toughest entry...

Congo Not too long ago, the 30-mile journey from this village to the nearest city was virtually impossible by car. It took at least 14 hours walking from dawn to dark, an odyssey in flip-flops through woods, over fallen trees, along a bumpy red-dirt...