The ZAM Nelson Mandela Lecture, initially scheduled for 2026, has been postponed by one year and will now take place in February 2027. This shift offers ZAM a welcome opportunity to build on the remarkable momentum of the 2025 edition, which featured investigative journalist John-Allan Namu’s keynote, Souls on Fire: The Global Quest for Freedom and Dignity — an address that resonated widely for its clarity, courage, and call to collective responsibility. Inspired by the depth and engagement of that...
The ZAM Nelson Mandela Lecture, initially scheduled for 2026, has been postponed by one year and will now take place in February 2027. This shift offers ZAM a welcome opportunity to build on the remarkable momentum of the 2025 edition, which featured investigative journalist...
In December 2025, ArtReview’s Power 100 for 2025 named Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama, celebrated for his textile installations and community-focused art, as the list’s most influential figure. This marks the first time an artist from the African continent has topped the influential annual ranking, showing a shift in the global cultural scene. In 2020, on the occasion of his receipt of the Dutch Prince Claus Award, Mahama was interviewed by ZAM about his drive, his ambitions, and his journey with...
In December 2025, ArtReview’s Power 100 for 2025 named Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama, celebrated for his textile installations and community-focused art, as the list’s most influential figure. This marks the first time an artist from the African continent has topped the influential...
2025 was the year in which Gabon’s President Nguema returned from a visit to the White House wearing a MAGA cap; the Rwandan government struck a US$200 million deal with Donald Trump in exchange for American control over Congolese mineral resources; Sudanese warlords, backed by the United Arab Emirates, waged war while the international community remained silent, fearful of jeopardising its relationship with this oil-rich nation; Burkinabè President Traoré seized every opportunity to deploy...
2025 was the year in which Gabon’s President Nguema returned from a visit to the White House wearing a MAGA cap; the Rwandan government struck a US$200 million deal with Donald Trump in exchange for American control over Congolese mineral resources; Sudanese warlords, backed by the...
Undaunted They have often had to survive on very little, faced threats both physical and legal, been routinely slandered in online campaigns orchestrated by the powerful, and sometimes forced to work undercover or from exile, but they enter 2026 smiling. ZAM portrays six journalists, members of the NAIRE Network of African Investigative Reporters and Editors, who attended milestone pan-African and global investigative journalism conferences last year, about taking stock of 2025 and their plans for...
Undaunted They have often had to survive on very little, faced threats both physical and legal, been routinely slandered in online campaigns orchestrated by the powerful, and sometimes forced to work undercover or from exile, but they enter 2026 smiling. ZAM portrays six...
That two of the four nominated artists for the prestigious Prix de Rome have African backgrounds is as remarkable as it is self-evident. A growing number of African-born artists are contributing to the rich diversity of the Dutch artistic landscape today, often with great success. For example, Neo Matloga (South Africa) has won the Royal Award for Visual Arts and the ABN AMRO Art Prize (now Award) in recent years for his intriguing collages. He was also nominated for the Volkskrant Visual Arts...
That two of the four nominated artists for the prestigious Prix de Rome have African backgrounds is as remarkable as it is self-evident. A growing number of African-born artists are contributing to the rich diversity of the Dutch artistic landscape today, often with great success....
Burundi’s new capital, the showcase city of Gitega, is dressed to the nines, celebrating itself — in the words of the president — as a “Garden of Eden”. Yet behind this façade lie deep-seated economic and political crises. Thousands of desperate young people are leaving their homes to try their luck in neighbouring countries. In Burundi’s new capital city, Gitega — the birthplace of the current president, Evariste Ndayishimiye, and declared the capital in 2019 — new hotels and businesses...
Burundi’s new capital, the showcase city of Gitega, is dressed to the nines, celebrating itself — in the words of the president — as a “Garden of Eden”. Yet behind this façade lie deep-seated economic and political crises. Thousands of desperate young people are leaving their homes...
There was certainly no more fitting location than the ship-like Keizersgrachtkerk in Amsterdam to host South African poet Julia-Beth Harris’s recent performance, Where the Clouds Gather . Evoking both the stormy Cape — where the clouds indeed always gather — and the seventeenth-century arrival of European men with guns, Harris dressed in their likeness. Lace inner sleeves of a uniform cupped her hands, while mineworkers’ gumboots anchored her feet. In doing so, she connected local visitors to the...
There was certainly no more fitting location than the ship-like Keizersgrachtkerk in Amsterdam to host South African poet Julia-Beth Harris’s recent performance, Where the Clouds Gather . Evoking both the stormy Cape — where the clouds indeed always gather — and the...
Ivory trafficking in the West African country of Benin is endangering the elephant population, causing losses to the tourism sector, linked to terrorist activities, and driving the outflow of millions of dollars that fuel international organised crime. Yet these trafficking networks continue to evade justice, a new investigation by Matin Libre shows. Elephant poaching for their ivory tusks is a scourge of Benin's national parks, located in the north of the country. According to data collected by...
Ivory trafficking in the West African country of Benin is endangering the elephant population, causing losses to the tourism sector, linked to terrorist activities, and driving the outflow of millions of dollars that fuel international organised crime. Yet these trafficking networks...
Whenever we think we have seen it all, something like Nicki Minaj addressing the United Nations about “genocide” of Christians in Nigeria happens. Minaj spoke at a panel at the US mission to the United Nations, along with US Ambassador Mike Waltz and US “faith leaders”, on Tuesday 18 November to “shine a spotlight on the deadly threat”, while thanking Donald Trump for his “leadership” on the matter. Trump recently announced that US troops might be sent to Nigeria to protect Christians in that...
Whenever we think we have seen it all, something like Nicki Minaj addressing the United Nations about “genocide” of Christians in Nigeria happens. Minaj spoke at a panel at the US mission to the United Nations, along with US Ambassador Mike Waltz and US “faith leaders”, on Tuesday...
Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders recently declared that development aid should be redirected to domestic priorities, adding: “Then they’ll just be a little hungrier in Africa, but not here.” ZAM contributor Oyunga Pala, author and journalist based in the Netherlands, reflects on this statement. During the recent Dutch election debate in October, populist politician Geert Wilders, leader of the extreme right-wing PVV party, made a controversial remark. While making a case for zero percent...
Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders recently declared that development aid should be redirected to domestic priorities, adding: “Then they’ll just be a little hungrier in Africa, but not here.” ZAM contributor Oyunga Pala, author and journalist based in the Netherlands,...
When people have wheels, they go far, as shown in a new book on cycling in Africa Whenever professor of technical history Ruth Oldenziel was told not to bother with a certain place “because they don’t cycle there,” she would think, “Oh, but they do.” “It’s simply a feature of a rising working class in industrial capitalism,” she says. “The story of South African mine workers who cycled between home and work mirrors that of harbour workers in Europe. They did it too. Cycling is what workers do in...
When people have wheels, they go far, as shown in a new book on cycling in Africa Whenever professor of technical history Ruth Oldenziel was told not to bother with a certain place “because they don’t cycle there,” she would think, “Oh, but they do.” “It’s simply a feature of a...
Two weeks ago, Trump threatened to send troops to stop “the genocide” of Christians in Nigeria. His message, shared on social media — as he does with any foreign policy announcement — terrified Nigerians. For days, citizens of our populous West African country debated the implications of this threat. Could there really be an invasion? Like in Afghanistan, Iraq, or Libya? Trump’s statement followed months of campaigns by US Republicans against the Nigerian government for allegedly “supporting the...
Two weeks ago, Trump threatened to send troops to stop “the genocide” of Christians in Nigeria. His message, shared on social media — as he does with any foreign policy announcement — terrified Nigerians. For days, citizens of our populous West African country debated the...
Power and faith: how ‘colour blind’ evangelism brings submission back to Africa On a TikTok video she made, Pontsho Pilane holds a South African Christian magazine called Joy! The cover shows the face of Erica Kirk, the widow of extreme right-wing evangelical influencer Charlie Kirk, who was recently killed in the US. In the photo, Erica smiles enrapturedly, her blonde hair cascading against a blue background. “Look how her gaze is turned upward to the heavens, and how a little gold cloud...
Power and faith: how ‘colour blind’ evangelism brings submission back to Africa On a TikTok video she made, Pontsho Pilane holds a South African Christian magazine called Joy! The cover shows the face of Erica Kirk, the widow of extreme right-wing evangelical influencer Charlie...
Responsible sourcing of ‘conflict minerals’ from Eastern Congo remains a facade Western consumers, regulations, and “fair” and “green” certification agencies and companies have sought to make mineral sourcing in the DRC more responsible. Yet as the conflict persists, “blood minerals” continue to mingle with green ambitions. By the end of the decade, 70% of sales by Volkswagen, Europe’s largest car manufacturer, should no longer rely on fossil fuels: a win for a greener future. These electric cars,...
Responsible sourcing of ‘conflict minerals’ from Eastern Congo remains a facade Western consumers, regulations, and “fair” and “green” certification agencies and companies have sought to make mineral sourcing in the DRC more responsible. Yet as the conflict persists, “blood...
Held in Johannesburg’s Braamfontein district during the weekend of 11 October, Fak’ugesi 2025’s Power Surge theme came alive, spotlighting African digital innovation in spaces that merge creativity, technology, and radical imagination. At the heart of the well attended festival, full of young and experienced, yet always curious lovers of tech, the transcontinental symposium Glitching the Future brought together artists, theorists, and performers. The Glitching the Future symposium, presented as an...
Held in Johannesburg’s Braamfontein district during the weekend of 11 October, Fak’ugesi 2025’s Power Surge theme came alive, spotlighting African digital innovation in spaces that merge creativity, technology, and radical imagination. At the heart of the well attended festival,...
Thania Petersen places her own body and gaze at the centre of histories long written about her community. Her photographic self-portraits in I Am Royal (2015), made as a gift to her children, gained widespread attention when curator Ingrid Masondo recognised Petersen’s vision and included her work in the Iziko South African National Gallery collection. In this conversation, Petersen reflects on a practice that interrogates the labels of “Cape Malay” and “Coloured” while tracing a creolised sense of...
Thania Petersen places her own body and gaze at the centre of histories long written about her community. Her photographic self-portraits in I Am Royal (2015), made as a gift to her children, gained widespread attention when curator Ingrid Masondo recognised Petersen’s vision and...
ZAM’s office in the Netherlands may have been surrounded by the noise and clamour of election campaigns in recent days, but that commotion pales in comparison to the protests — and, sadly, the violent responses by authorities — that have accompanied elections in Cameroon, Ivory Coast, and Tanzania during the same period. In these countries, oppressive one-party governments have gone to great lengths to suppress opposition and voters. What is happening in these countries is symptomatic of a wave of...
ZAM’s office in the Netherlands may have been surrounded by the noise and clamour of election campaigns in recent days, but that commotion pales in comparison to the protests — and, sadly, the violent responses by authorities — that have accompanied elections in Cameroon, Ivory...
Kleptocracy, a society or system ruled by those who use political power to appropriate their country’s resources for personal gain, became one of ZAM’s central themes after our colleagues in the Network of African Investigative Reporters and Editors, investigation after investigation, kept uncovering files and dubious agreements hidden in back rooms, tracing mansions, vast estates, private car parks, Swiss bank accounts, and New York shopping trips back to their beneficiaries. Finding underlying...
Kleptocracy, a society or system ruled by those who use political power to appropriate their country’s resources for personal gain, became one of ZAM’s central themes after our colleagues in the Network of African Investigative Reporters and Editors, investigation after...
Getting close to the rubies still means risking your life Exactly ten years ago, in 2015, ZAM published the investigation The Ruby Plunder Wars of Montepuez . It revealed that in Montepuez, Mozambique — home to the world’s richest ruby deposit — a “local general pockets proceeds while artisanal miners get shot by Special Forces.” The report was met with vehement denials of responsibility by the majority mine owner, UK gemstone giant Gemfields, and with stony silence from its Mozambican partner...
Getting close to the rubies still means risking your life Exactly ten years ago, in 2015, ZAM published the investigation The Ruby Plunder Wars of Montepuez . It revealed that in Montepuez, Mozambique — home to the world’s richest ruby deposit — a “local general pockets proceeds...
How migrant fishermen followed their catch from Ghana to Denmark—and back Ghanaian fishermen who migrated to Europe because of overfishing along Ghana’s coastline have found themselves exploited in the European fishing industry. The companies that depend on their labour do little to ensure decent working conditions, a situation worsened by weak regulations and the rise of populist anti-migrant rhetoric in the global north. Interestingly, however, circumstances seem to be improving on the Ghanaian...
How migrant fishermen followed their catch from Ghana to Denmark—and back Ghanaian fishermen who migrated to Europe because of overfishing along Ghana’s coastline have found themselves exploited in the European fishing industry. The companies that depend on their labour do little to...
Article created in partnership with the DOEN Foundation. Far from the bustle of downtown Bamako, tucked away in a quiet neighbourhood, lies the headquarters of the Anw Jigi Art association. At its helm Assitan Tangara, embodies a new generation of socially engaged artists - deeply rooted in their communities and guided since childhood by a passion for the stage. To reach the headquarters of Anw Jigi Art in Djalakorodji, a northern suburb on the outskirts of Bamako, I had to navigate chaotic, uneven...
Article created in partnership with the DOEN Foundation. Far from the bustle of downtown Bamako, tucked away in a quiet neighbourhood, lies the headquarters of the Anw Jigi Art association. At its helm Assitan Tangara, embodies a new generation of socially engaged artists - deeply...
