Today on the podcast we meet a young Nigerian who’s made it her mission to revive the tradition of weaving – especially for women. Florentina Agu, the founder of luxury brand Hertunba, blends modern fashion with vibrant traditional Nigerian textiles, hoping to inspire more women and young people to consider making their livelihoods from this ancient craft. Between the 1970s and 1990s, Nigeria’s textile sector enjoyed its golden years, but in recent years the industry has declined due to economic...
Sep 25, 2024•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Albinism is an inherited condition that affects the production of melanin. People born with the condition have fair skin, hair and eyes. Superstitions about the body parts of people with albinism have led to violent attacks. In 2008 Tanzania appeared to be the epicentre of these superstitions and attacks. Anyone living with albinism there lived in fear. The BBC’s former Tanzania correspondent Vicky Ntetema’s reporting on the brutality of the attacks - maiming and beheadings - brought global atte...
Sep 24, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Mpox outbreak was declared a public health emergency in August 2024. Since then, more than 29,000 cases and 738 deaths have been reported across 15 Africa Union member states, according to the Africa Centre for Disease Control (Africa CDC). Despite some progress, such as the delivery of 200,000 vaccines to the DRC, challenges remain in getting the vaccines to the most affected communities. The outbreak has also evolved from a health crisis into a wider issue affecting businesses and liveliho...
Sep 23, 2024•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast “I hated myself so much. But now I have the courage to love myself and see myself beyond this virus.” Singing a song in class with the words ‘Aids is a killer disease’ when none of your classmates know you’re HIV positive… Telling friends your status and then finding people are afraid to touch you… Being told by young men that you’re ‘lucky’ they will date you. Two young women from South Africa and Kenya who were born with the virus share an emotional discussion about how these experiences impac...
Sep 20, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today Alan Kasujja sits down with Dan Marokane, the recently appointed CEO of South Africa's national power supplier, Eskom. He wants to understand how the new boss has been able to halt power cuts that have been devastating to both the economy and the wellbeing of all South Africans. These electricity problems started towards the end of 2007. Then president Thabo Mbeki apologised and admitted that he should have listened to the leadership of Eskom who warned his administration about future powe...
Sep 19, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast China is now Africa’s biggest trading partner, with 20% of exports going to China and 16% of imports coming from there, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). At the 9th Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) meeting earlier this month, President Xi Jinping promised $50 billion for African development, including military support and new jobs. While this partnership boosts development, it’s also raising worries about debt, dependency and power imbalances. BBC Africa Daily’s Alan K...
Sep 18, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hunger. It’s not just a horrible feeling… it also has a massive impact on how a child performs academically and how productive they will be as an adult. A new Gates Foundation report “The Race to Nourish a Warming World” calls malnutrition the world’s worst health crisis - with more than 400 million children not getting the nutrients they need to grow and thrive. Many of those children are in Africa - and one organisation trying to tackle child hunger is Food4Education. Since 2016 they have prov...
Sep 17, 2024•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast “I have eaten elephant meat. I have eaten hippo meat. I think what is food depends on where you are” – Romeo Muyunda, Namibia’s Department of Environment, Forestry and Tourism The drought, which became worse earlier this year, has seen crops being wiped out and animals dying across Southern Africa. As a result, 68 million people have been affected, with some now facing hunger. It’s reached a point where countries like Namibia are now resorting to slaughtering wild animals such as hippos, elephan...
Sep 16, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Rebecca Cheptegei had just returned to her training base in Kenya from Paris, where she had competed in the women’s marathon at the Olympics. The following Sunday she and her two daughters aged 11 and 9 arrived home from a church service. Her ex-boyfriend was waiting at her home with a jerry can of petrol. He poured it on Rebecca and set her on fire as her children watched. She died four days later. Two other elite female athletes have died under similar circumstances in recent years in Kenya, w...
Sep 13, 2024•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast “Dream big! You can achieve your wildest dreams as long as you work hard and get yourself in school.” Nicknamed ‘the Beast’, Tendai Mtawarira is the most-capped prop to have played for the Springboks. Born in Zimbabwe, his talent at rugby was quickly spotted and he was offered a bursary as a teenager to train with the Sharks in South Africa. In 2008 he was called up to play for the national squad as he’d lived in the country for enough time. But in 2010 he was barred from playing because of a co...
Sep 12, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast "The pilot told us, ‘Don’t go back...either you will be raped or killed at the airport if you go back.’" Safia Omer, a former member of Somalia’s national women’s basketball team, vividly remembers the day she knew she couldn’t return home. In 1991, as civil war erupted in Somalia, Safia and her teammates were in Ethiopia for a tournament when they were warned that it was too dangerous to return. Stranded for 10 days at the airport, Safia eventually sought refuge in the United States, mirroring ...
Sep 11, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast You may not have heard of the African Initiative before… It’s a Russian media organisation - established exactly a year ago – which defines itself as an “information bridge between Russia and Africa”. It has offices in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. But it also stands accused of targeting African journalists - and the public - with disinformation. So what is the end goal for Russia’s African Initiative? Presenter: Alan Kasujja Guests: Fauziyya Tukur of the BBC’s global disinformation team, and fo...
Sep 10, 2024•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast “My uncle passed away, his wife, his three sons, I lost my best friend, and a lot of people in Derna lost someone that they know.” On the 11th of September 2023 two dams burst in the hills above the city of Derna in Libya. Millions of tonnes of water were released in a catastrophic flood which killed thousands of people in the city. Whole neighbourhoods were swept away. Eastern Libya had been affected by heavy rain from Storm Daniel the day before, but the dam walls should have held firm, and a ...
Sep 09, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Egypt has offered to send 10,000 soldiers to Somalia to assist the country with peacekeeping operations. However, this seems to have unsettled Ethiopia which has said it could not “stand idle while other actors take measures to destabilise the region.” Ethiopia has been a key ally of Somalia in its fight against the militant group, Al-Shabaab. So what exactly has caused these tensions? And what has the Ethiopian Grand Renascence dam got to do with all this? Alan Kasujja has been exploring for Af...
Sep 06, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast The people of Tunisia are expected to elect a new president in October. But the build-up to the election has been marred by controversy with key political leaders being arrested and some journalists leaving the country. It all started in July 2021 when president Kais Saied suspended parliament and sacked the prime minister. These events were triggered by anger over the government's handling of the coronavirus outbreak and the economic and social turmoil. President Saied defended his decision to ...
Sep 05, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast “Within just five years we lost almost 20 metres of the shoreline and it does not seem to be slowing with time.” Climate experts say up to 60% of Africa’s coastal land could disappear within the next 50 years due to coastal erosion resulting from sea-level rise. In this episode of Africa Daily, Alan Kasujja discusses the impact of this on coastal communities, and what they need to do to avert the worst possible scenarios. He speaks to Saida Idris, a resident of Kipini village on the Kenyan coast...
Sep 04, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast The 36-acre landfill is the only landfill serving the whole of Uganda’s capital – Kampala. A city that’s home to an estimated four million people. It collapsed after weeks of relentless rain. The city authorities have reportedly been trying to find a new site for years. Many victims were living in unsafe conditions. An investigation has been ordered into years of neglect. Africa Daily’s Alan Kasujja spoke to Ugandan Earth Observation expert Ivan Bamweyana and renowned lawyer David Mpanga....
Sep 03, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast A couple of weeks ago Africa Daily's Alan Kasujja spoke to two farmers in Nigeria and Tanzania about the challenges around farming in Africa. They talked about deteriorating soil quality, rising prices, insecurity and unreliable weather patterns. This week these issues will be discussed at the Africa Food Systems Forum 2024 summit which will be held in Rwanda’s capital Kigali. Heads of state, politicians, farmers, and agricultural businesses will be there to look at ways of making the production...
Sep 02, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast “More than ever, the people of Burkina Faso need to remain united around the defence and security forces.” A video showing scores of civilians shot dead in the ditches they were digging - was released by an Al Qaeda-linked group active in Burkina Faso earlier this week. It was apparent proof of a major attack it said it had conducted in the northern village of Barsalogho on Saturday. It’s believed at least 100 people were killed, but the government hasn’t confirmed numbers. But what is clear is ...
Aug 30, 2024•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast “I always say to them (South Africans), these foreign nationals are developing your country. Why can’t you see that? The main guy who owned this shop was always helpful, especially to the old ladies here in our area.” – Samuel Makgowa, South African landlord Earlier this month, shops belonging to foreign nationals were, once again, shut down indefinitely in the township of Soweto in South Africa. It's a campaign sponsored by anti-migrant group, Operation Dudula. It came after a South African man...
Aug 29, 2024•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast “As a person living with disability, sport gives you the purpose and the inspiration to move on with life because when you see someone who is physically worse off than you doing better than you, you get inspired and want to do more." The Paralympic games start today in Paris, just over two weeks after the Olympic games ended in the French Capital. Over 4,400 athletes with various forms of disabilities will be competing in 22 sports for 549 gold medals. Africa has just over 300 para athletes repr...
Aug 28, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast “It becomes scary when you see people that would normally smile at you - and all of a sudden you see so many people on the streets making those kind of chants. And you think, 'wow, what has been going on underground? This is the city that I used to know. Why should I now be extra watchful? What exactly is going on?'” - Toyyib Adelodun, Nigerian migrant in the UK The world watched in shock as police cars were destroyed and shops and properties belonging to foreign nationals targeted in the UK, ea...
Aug 27, 2024•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast "If not now, then when? And if you don’t do it, who else will?” Those are the two questions Sara Sabry suggests all woman ask themselves when they’re thinking through a big move… and finding they don’t have the confidence to follow it through. And she should know. The Egyptian mechanical and biomedical engineer was the first African woman in space when she blasted off in Blue Origin’s New Shepherd rocket in 2022. She’s the founder of Deep Space Initiative, an organisation with the mission to mak...
Aug 26, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast We all know that Africa is getting hit hardest by climate change - even though the continent contributes less than 4% of global emissions. BBC’s Africa Daily’s Alan Kasujja spoke with Kulthoum Omari Motsumi, Africa’s lead negotiator in global climate talks. Kulthoum is on the front line, making sure Africa’s voice is heard and fighting for the support it deserves. She talks about the unique challenge of representing 54 countries with different needs and how they’re pushing for real action in the...
Aug 23, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast “The cost of food will just go higher and higher, because farmers like myself cannot afford to invest in farming and can’t even have their capital back at the end of the season.” More than 300 million people faced acute hunger in 2023 according to the World Food Programme. The UN body said this was caused by a number of issues including global warming, insecurity and conflict, and food and energy price inflation. Africa is home to millions of small farmers who are key to feeding the continent… s...
Aug 22, 2024•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast “If the leadership of the minibus taxi sector is prepared to be patient and invest in research and development, absolutely, they stand a chance” – Dr. Mathetha Mokonyama, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research When international e-hailing services Uber and Bolt arrived in South Africa about a decade ago, they claimed a massive chunk of the metered taxi market. This left local taxi operators fuming, with tensions leading to the loss of life in some parts of the country. But now, South Afr...
Aug 21, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Just over four months ago Senegal elected a new president. After a tumultuous start to the election- Bassirou Diomaye Faye was declared the winner and became at 44 years old Africa’s youngest head of state. Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko promised a radical break from the past, an Afrocentric and nationalist agenda. They vowed to fight poverty and corruption. To create jobs for young people, contracts for gas, oil, fishing and defence would be renegotiated to get a better ...
Aug 20, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast It started with the horrific killing of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event for children in the seaside town of Southport, in northern England. After false rumours were spread on social media that the 17-year-old charged with their murders was a Muslim migrant who’d arrived by boat a few years before, a wave of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant protests spread across the UK. Cars were set on fire, immigrant-owned-businesses were destroyed, and the police attacked. A hotel housing...
Aug 19, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast The funeral of former president of Confederation of African Football Dr Issa Hayatou is taking place today in Garoua, northern Cameroon. Hayatou died aged 77 last week in Paris, where he’d been receiving dialysis for kidney problems. His name was synonymous with African football for nearly three decades. He served as president of Caf from 1988 to 2017. He is credited with expanding Africa’s participation at the World Cup and secured the financial security of African football. But he is also crit...
Aug 16, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast “These MPs were never advocates of violence. They were speaking inside the chambers of parliament. They have never joined any mass action on the streets” – Thantaza Silolo, Swaziland Liberation Movement Eswatini’s former Members of Parliament, Mduduzi Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube were arrested following the anti-monarchy riots that claimed dozens of lives back in 2021. Mabuza is currently serving 25 years while Mthandeni Dube was given 18 years. They are now appealing their sentences. But human rig...
Aug 15, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
