Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo, is Kinshasa’s less psychotic younger brother. Both cities are dirty and run down, and fit my usual description when describing ex-colonial African cities to foreigners: “Imagine a mid-size European city, with wide boulevards, planters in the medians, etc. Now imagine most of the streets never get paved [...]

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No, it’s not apartheid or even the current riots.  It’s the government. If you want to understand South Africa, and in much of what plagues all of Africa – read this editorial on the criminal incompetence of Thabo Mbeki, South Africa’s current president. You’ll begin to understand why Robert Guest, the Africa editor for the [...]

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