SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS - The African Mirror

Aug

01

2025

SOUTH AFRICA’S WAR ON CORRUPTION: The SIU success story and blueprint for change

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

JOVIAL RANTAO CORRUPTION has been described by many South Africans as one of the biggest threats to building the country that millions who fought apartheid dreamt of. The scourge has siphoned billions meant to provide a better life to Nelson Mandela's nation, bringing the country to the verge of hopelessness. However, there is hope – found in institutions that continue winning victories against graft and citizens dedicating their expertise to fight criminals who loot state coffers. Hope is embodied by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), which has taken the war against corruption and won handsomely over the past decade. The…

Jul

31

2025

By REGIS MUSAVENGANE

Land reform in South Africa: how one community set up a successful game reserve

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

IN South Africa, most of the arable land was taken from African people by colonial settlers. Ever since apartheid ended in 1994, people who were dispossessed of their land have been trying to get it back. When land is given back to an entire community, things can become complicated. For example, some people might want to divide it up into individual plots; others might want to use the land communally. Or individuals in positions of power might exploit their influence to secure personal gains. This underscores the need for inclusive dialogue and collaboration to make sure that the people who…

Jul

30

2025

By ONYEDIKACHI MADUEKE

Armed banditry is becoming a crisis in Nigeria: why fixing the police is key

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

ARMED banditry in Nigeria has escalated into a full-blown security crisis, particularly in the north-west and north-central regions. What began as sporadic attacks has now morphed into coordinated campaigns of terror affecting entire communities. In March 2022, bandits attacked an Abuja-bound train with over 900 passengers, killing several and abducting an unknown number. Earlier, in January 2022, around 200 people were killed and 10,000 displaced in Zamfara after over 300 gunmen on motorcycles stormed eight villages, shooting indiscriminately and burning homes. Between 2023 and May 2025, at least 10,217 people were killed by armed groups, including bandits, in northern Nigeria.…

Jul

28

2025

By LEILA DEMAREST and LINE KUPPENS

Young Nigerians learn about democracy at school: how it’s shaping future voters

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

DEMOCRATIC consolidation is a continuing struggle, in Africa as elsewhere. The turn to democracy gained momentum in Africa in the late 1980s and early 1990s but has petered out since. Can new generations turn the tide? The need to prepare young people to become democratically minded is well established. In Western societies, school-based civic education has been considered the means to do it since as early as the 1960s. The assumption is that better knowledge about the democratic functioning of the state promotes stronger democratic values and norms. It is also thought to increase trust in institutions and a willingness…

Jul

26

2025

By MALIK SAMUEL

When rebels rule: ISWAP’s formula for winning support in Nigeria’s northeast

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian.By Malik Samuel IN Nigeria’s northeast, the jihadist group Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) is the Islamic State Central's most successful regional affiliate, combining a ruthless insurgency with an elaborate governance and tax system that has enabled it to withstand sustained military pressure. While modelled on the administrative system of ISIS-central, based in Syria and Iraq, ISWAP has adapted the framework to the Lake Chad Basin. At the heart of its governance model is a network of formal departments known as dawawin – essentially ministries – tasked with overseeing military operations,…

Jul

22

2025

By FISAYO AJALA

Boko Haram conflict: Nigeria’s army is failing the widows of dead soldiers

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

NIGERIAN soldiers’ widows have been reported as lacking support from the army, and even experiencing sexual harassment while claiming their late husbands’ benefits. Their concerns echo the findings of our recent study as military sociologists. The research focused on Nigerian widows who lost their husbands in the Boko Haram conflict, and the extent to which the Nigerian Army fulfilled its responsibilities towards them. Boko Haram is officially known as Jamaat Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad (JAS), meaning “people committed to the propagation of the Prophet’s teachings and jihad”. The Islamic State’s West African Province is its splinter group. They are Islamist…

Jul

18

2025

By PHILIPP KASTNER

4 things every peace agreement needs – and how the DRC-Rwanda deal measures up

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

THE governments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda concluded a peace treaty in June 2025, aimed at ending a decades-long war in eastern DRC. The United Nations welcomed the agreement as “a significant step towards de-escalation, peace and stability” in the region. I have analysed several different peace negotiations and agreements. It’s important to distinguish between what’s needed to get warring parties to the table and what’s eventually agreed on. In this article, I examine whether the DRC-Rwanda deal has the four essential components that usually signal that an agreement will hold. Two broad points about…

Jul

17

2025

By LEILA DEMAREST and ARNIM LANGER

Lagos is young and diverse, so what shapes ethnic and religious prejudice among teens? Our study tried to find out

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

LAGOS State, with an estimated population of 20 million, is Africa’s largest metropolis. Home to Nigeria’s commercial capital, it is a magnet for internal migration, drawing in a mix of the country’s ethnic groups. Nigeria is estimated to have between 150 and 500 distinct ethnic groups, many of which are represented in Lagos. The original inhabitants of Lagos were Yoruba. As the colonial capital, the city experienced early migration from the Igbo group from the southeast. The Hausa-Fulani, from the north, are another important group to have been drawn to Lagos. More recent migration to the city has also been…

Jul

16

2025

By TAIBAT LAWANSON

Nigeria’s Maroko eviction remembered: a brutal legacy lives on

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

THIRTY-FIVE years ago in mid-July, bulldozers demolished the homes, hopes and aspirations of over 300,000 people in the low-income community of Maroko, in Lagos, Nigeria. This remains Nigeria’s biggest forced eviction to date – the complete annihilation of about 30 neighbourhoods at one time. The evictions were framed as an attempt to improve people’s living conditions and minimise exposure to flooding. But hundreds of thousands of people were left homeless. A new film, Displaced – A City’s Scars, documents how communities in Lagos have suffered a century of evictions, which continue today through a new wave of gentrification. https://www.youtube.com/embed/p5geHFBI4_4 The…

Jul

14

2025

By MAURICE HUTTON

Alcohol and colonialism: the curious story of the Bulawayo beer gardens

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

KONTUTHU Ziyathunqa – Smoke Rising – was what they used to call Bulawayo when the city was the industrial powerhouse of Zimbabwe. Now, many of its factories lie dormant or derelict. The daily torrent of workers flowing eastward at dawn and back out to the high-density western suburbs at dusk has diminished to a trickle. But there is an intriguing industrial-era institution that lives on in most of the older western suburbs (formerly called townships). It is the municipal beer hall or beer garden, built in the colonial days for the racially segregated African worker communities. There are dozens of…