Patrick Smith
Independence Square
Accra
Ghana
Dear Africa Confidentialers
I've just walked across Accra's Independence Square, which was today the focal point of Ghana's celebrations of 50 years of Independence. The Square sits between the lapping waves of the Atlant...
Patrick Smith
Rue de la Verrerie
Paris 75004
Dear Africa Confidentialers,
This week's letter strikes a Francophone note. Last week France's President Jacques Chirac welcomed more than 30 African leaders to Cannes for the France-Africa summit and the 2 March edition o...
Patrick Smith
Voting was colourful in the city of Thies, 70 km to the east of Dakar and Senegal's second most populous city. Men and women, young and old, turned out after mosque prayers in their hundreds at Kaba Sall primary school to exercise their right at the ballo...
Patrick Smith
Farringdon Road,
London EC1
Dear Confidentialers,
One of those historical weeks in Africa has just gone by: summits and summitry in Addis Ababa, political intrigue unravels in Abuja, a peacekeeping force is readied for Mogadishu, China's President Hu Ji...
Patrick Smith
Farringdon Road,
London EC1
Dear Readers,
It is one of those weeks when London lives up to its old reputation as the crossroads of Africa. The capital has hosted a procession of African stars beginning with one of Africa's most distinguished intellectu...
Patrick Smith
Paris
Dear Readers,
Happy New Year! I say that with more fervour than usual. The new year's prospects didn't look auspicious as the old year hobbled away. Just as I was setting off for the airport for a swing through West Africa, the radio and televisi...
Guest Blogger
Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front's National Conference 2006
The ninth Zimbabwe African National Union conference may be finished but the controversy isn't. Welshman Ncube, Secretary General of the Mutambara-led Movement for Democratic Chan...
Patrick Smith
On 11 March, a week AFTER Africa Confidential published an exclusive report on the main findings, British Prime Minister Tony Blair launched his Commission for Africa report.
Blair insisted that he would reform British policy to meet the Africa Commissi...
Patrick Smith
Nearly two years after the Sudan government began massacring its own citizens in Darfur, the United Nations at last seems to be moving – albeit slowly – towards action. Iraq has put military ventures out of fashion and many have used this as an excuse for...