Category Archives: Journalism

A quiet morning

It’s one of the those mornings here in Lusaka, where you head out of the drive at the usual time, and within 5 minutes you notice that it all seems a little too quiet. It’s a sort of mid-week Sunday … Continue reading

Posted in Journalism, Politics | 4 Comments

From Freetown, farewell Chris Simpson (1963-2016)

Over the last few days a diverse range of Africanists discovered they all had one friend in common, and that he had just died in an apartment in Dakar. The reporting legend that was Chris Simpson has left us. Others … Continue reading

Posted in Journalism | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

Jobs for the boys

If there’s a story that depresses me almost more than any other when I survey the Ivorian newspaper front pages, it’s the headlines from ruling party youth members that they’ve been “forgotten”. Youth employment is a tragic and major issue … Continue reading

Posted in Journalism, Politics | Leave a comment

The editorial meeting

Oh, to be a fly on the wall at the RTI (state tv) morning editorial meeting today. Here’s my imagined fictional account just for fun: Editor: “Ok, folks silence, let’s make a start. [Quiet descends, nervous glances, visible stress] As you … Continue reading

Posted in Journalism | Leave a comment

A quiet spell

It might have escaped your notice, but I haven’t blogged here for a while. Since setting up Drogba’s Country in 2011, I’ve been pretty consistent in blogging about Ivory Coast despite having left the country at the end of 2012. Nevertheless, I … Continue reading

Posted in Journalism | Leave a comment

Journal Gbayé – Ivory Coast’s news in rap and nouchi

I’d seen the stories about the rap news in Senegal (the JT rappé) , but now from the same outfit we have an Ivorian version, rapped/sung in French and Nouchi (local Ivorian street slang), with support from George Soros’ Open … Continue reading

Posted in Journalism, Politics, Web | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Oil production in Ivory Coast

A recent report on Ivory Coast’s oil taxes on koaci.com caught my eye. Oil production in 2014 was apparently ‘19,000 bpd’, described in the article as ‘a significant reduction from the figures reported last year.’ But there was good news as well … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Journalism | Leave a comment

What’s going on down on the farm?

I’ve bemoaned before on this blog the lack of quality (or almost any) coverage of rural issues in the Ivorian national press. With half of the population living in rural areas, agriculture being far-and-away the largest employer (largely informally, but … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Journalism | Leave a comment

Checkpoint extortion

It’s interesting to see how the likes of Amnesty, International Crisis Group and above all Human Rights Watch have started to move into investigative journalism. This HRW report from this week is a good read. Overall there are many positives in … Continue reading

Posted in Journalism, Politics | Leave a comment

Surviving as a freelance journalist

With plenty of doom and gloom in the Western world, and even sometimes in large media houses, how can you survive as a freelance journalist without a secure income? Well, firstly, as Martin at HotelIvory has pointed out a few times, … Continue reading

Posted in Journalism | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment