It's a Continent

Freetown is the capital city of Sierra Leone, a country in Western Africa. The name of the city has links to its origin as a British colony used to repatriate freed black people from across the British Empire (Jamaica and Canada) as well as other places as far and wide as The Congo and Lake Malawi.

During the Scramble for Africa, Italy was eager to develop a 'second Roman Empire' within the continent. It set its sights on Ethiopia, which they were 'awarded' during the Berlin Conference of 1884-85. Now, all they had to do was remove the Ethiopian government and occupy the land.

Yoweri Museveni is a name you may have heard of during Uganda’s most recent elections where he was up against his main political rival Bobi Wine. This presidential election was entangled by fraud, threats, and sanctioned killings - but how did Ugandan politics get to this point? This episode is the first of a two-parter.

We're back in Uganda for the second part of our episodes focussing on Yoweri Museveni. This time we discuss the way his government silenced Bobi Wine's activities during the 2021 elections through excessive force and sanctioned killings.

To recognise Black History month in the UK, we're joined by the academic, activist and author Professor Kehinde Andrews. Kehinde is a professor of Black Studies at Birmingham City University and has written several books, his latest being ‘The New Age of Empire: How Racism and Colonialism Still Rule the World.’

Vera Chirwa was Malawi’s first female lawyer and became a founding member of the Malawi Congress Party and the Nyasaland African Women’s league. Chirwa’s belief in multiparty democratic rule came at a time when a dangerous despot, Hastings Banda ruled a newly independent Malawi.

The Kingdom of Lesotho is a country enclaved within South Africa. The country’s formation stemmed from the work of King Moshoeshoe I (1786-1870) who founded the Basotho nation and helped define what it meant to be Basotho. In this episode, we’ll explore the country’s formation, its complicated relationship and history with South Africa, and recent political challenges which have shaped the nation.

Our final episode of the season takes us to Algeria. We discuss the lead up to the Algerian War of Independence and the drastic actions France took in an attempt to retain power over the northern African nation. We also discuss the consequences of this conflict - including the mistreatment of Algerians in France, and those of Algerian descent demanding for official recognition of their treatment enshrined in law.

Ceuta and Melilla are enclaved cities where the European Union has land borders with the African continent, as Spain continues to lay claims within Morocco. What is Spain doing in Morocco in the first place, and what are the wider implications?