The old guard seems determined to ruin the country’s political prospects. Read the full story here. Published in The Economist, 21 June 2013. Continue reading Madagascar’s elections: they just won’t give up
Arts and crafts play a large role in economies dependent on tourism. Now some governments are waking up to the need to professionalise the industry. Read the full article here. Article published in The Africa Report, April 2013. Continue reading Africa’s village crafts have big ambitions
Some 12 million Africans are thought to have been sold as slaves from Senegal to Angola over a period of 500 years. Most were destined to work in European colonies in the Americas. Today, the Ghanaian forts from which so many were shipped have become places of pilgrimage for their descendants – and for Africans too. Read the full story here. (UK residents will need … Continue reading A pilgrimage to Ghana’s slave forts
Africa is beginning to win its battle against the terrible parasitic river blindness infection, thanks in no small part to the painstaking work of villagers who catch the flies responsible for the disease and send them on for testing. The story first aired on the BBC’s From Our Own Correspondent on Radio 4 on Saturday 4 May – you can listen to it here. Or … Continue reading Beating river blindness, one fly at a time
The global health community should not take its eyes off the target to eliminate the disease that still kills 600,000 people every year. Read the full story here. Published in The Guardian’s Development Professionals Network, 25 April 2013. Continue reading World Malaria Day: Time to stay focused
Though Malagasies are likely to remember 2013 as the year of the long-awaited presidential elections, it will also stay in the annales as the year when the country started producing oil. Read the full story here. Published in The Africa Report, 16 April 2013. Continue reading Madagascar joins the oil producers’ club
The wife of former president Marc Ravalomanana is one of the frontrunners in the 23rd August elections but her husband’s role in the campaign remains ambiguous. Read the full story here. Article published in The Africa Report, April 2013. Photo ©Official Robinson 2013 Page on Flickr. Continue reading Lalao Ravalomanana: undaunted presidential candidate
The African diaspora in the UK could play a key role in malaria prevention awareness in countries where the disease is endemic. Read the full story here. Published in the Guardian’s Development Professionals’ Network, 4 February 2013. Photo courtesy of Morguefile.com Continue reading Malaria and the diaspora
On 15 January, Madagascar’s transitional leader, Andry Rajoelina, announced that he wouldn’t be standing in the 8 May presidential elections. His decision follows that of his arch rival, Marc Ravalomana, who took himself out of the running in December. But if neither ‘Raj’ nor ‘Rav’, who will be president? Read the full story here. Published on Economist.com, 30 January 2013. Continue reading Madagascar: who will be president?
Since Madagascar’s leader, Andry Rajoelina, ousted President Marc Ravalomanana in a military coup in March 2009, he has promised—and postponed—elections every year. So when he announced in August 2012 that presidential elections would take place on May 8th 2013, the reaction was one of rather cautious enthusiasm, or even scepticism. Yet Madagascar desperately needs these elections – read the full story here. Published in The … Continue reading Madagascar’s political stalemate
