Talking Africa The Africa Report

Mark Suzman is the CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

He sits astride one of the biggest charitable endeavours on the planet, a $50bn endowment that has in the last 18 months thrown itself at the Covid-19 pandemic, funding all manner of research and vaccine trials, and now the COVAX scheme itself.

In this conversation with Nicholas Norbrook, he talks through the thorny nature of global collective action problems, and why the world should fund African vaccines shots to avoid a costly new Covid-19 variant.

The European Union has an ambitious trillion dollar plan to slash emissions by over 50% from 1990 levels by 2030.
This can present opportunities to African countries... but also threats.
Will it lock African farmers out of EU markets? Will it lock finance out of dirty energy projects too soon?
Zainab Usman of the Carnegie Endowment and Olumide Abimbola of the Africa Policy Research Centre join The Africa's Report's Nicholas Norbrook

What next for Al Shabaab, the insurgent group that attacked Palma in the northern Mozambique province of Cabo Delgado in March? Is South Africa on the hook financially and now militarily? What has a decade of drug money done to local politics?

Dino Mahtani, International Crisis Group's Deputy Director for Africa, takes us on a deep dive into Mozambique's thorny security imbroglio.

With Nicholas Norbrook and Patrick Smith.

On 12 August, Zambians go to the polls to vote in their next president.

Zambia’s ruling party, the Patriotic Front, confirmed Edgar Lungu in April as its candidate in this year's polls.

With electoral campaigns now open since 21 May, 19 candidates have so far presented themselves as contenders against Lungu.

But one man in particular is looking to take over from the incumbent president.

He's hoping the sixth time will be a charm.

In this week's Talking Africa, we speak to Hakainde Hichilema, Zambia's main opposition candidate, of the United Party for National Development.

For more, head to www.theafricareport.com

Today Nigeria’s political system is more fiercely contested than ever with some militants trying to break up the federation – to what extent do these schisms have their roots in the extreme violence of Britain’s commercial exploitation of the territory and its colonial conquest ?

To tackle this question, Talking Africa podcast speaks to Max Siollun, author of  What Britain Did To Nigeria; Barnaby Phillips, author of Loot : Britain and the Benin Bronzes , and Funmi Adebayo, an economist and publisher of the Black Monologues podcast series.

This week's Talking Africa is mediated by Patrick Smith. 

For more, head to www.theafricareport.com

Former cabinet minister, co-ordinator of the #BringBankOurGirls campaign, VP at the World Bank... the multi-talented Obiageli Ezekwesili discusses why Nigeria's political elite missed a golden moment to create a nation, rather than just a country.

For more, head to www.theafricareport.com