Learning Africa

Amadou Dieng
  • 5.0 (3)
  • News Commentary

Curious and expansive Learning Africa is a podcast for anyone who wants to understand the continent beyond the headlines. Each episode explores the stories, people, and forces shaping Africa today, from political upheaval and economic transformation to culture, history, and the ideas driving the next generation. Hosted by Amadou Dieng, it's a space to ask honest questions, sit with complexity, and come away knowing Africa a little better than before. 

  1. Aug 5

    CAF Said Nothing, And FIFA's $20B World Cup Plan Died Anyway

    Send us Fan Mail When FIFA asked its 211 members to approve a $20 billion plan to sell a stake in the World Cup, UEFA voted 55-0 to boycott. CONCACAF revolted. Asia's confederation joined them. A senior FIFA adviser resigned in protest. CAF, the confederation representing 54 African nations, the second-largest bloc of votes in the sport, confirmed it had received the letter, and said it would "assess and evaluate." Nothing more. Four days later, the plan was dead, withdrawn by Infantino himself, before CAF's own committee ever had to say where it stood. This episode sits inside that silence. Not to condemn it, not to excuse it, but to understand it. CAF was weighing an offer it may have genuinely needed, from a confederation in real financial distress, while carrying its own credibility crisis: a disputed AFCON final, a general secretary's sudden resignation, a case still unresolved at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Is CAF's silence financial pragmatism? Discipline that let others spend the political capital? Or an institution with no independent voice, waiting to see what everyone else does first? CAF got the outcome it may have wanted without ever going on record. That's not a small thing to get away with. It's also not obviously a victory. Support the show Enjoyed this one? Got a take? A correction? A story I should know about? Come find me on Instagram @dieng_amadu or @afrovoices and tell me what you think. What landed, what missed, what you want more of.  This show is built around the idea that Africa is not a simple story, and neither are the people listening to it. Your perspective is part of that. Slide into the DMs, leave a comment, or just tag me when you share it. I read everything. See you in the next one.

  2. Jul 29

    M-PESA: The App That Became a Country's - Kenya- Bank

    Send us Fan Mail Before 2007, sending money across Kenya meant a bus ride and a stranger you had to trust. Then a loan-repayment pilot got hijacked by its own users, and became M-Pesa, the mobile money system that now moves more value in a year than Kenya's entire economy produces. It's a rare African-built success story that the rest of the world has spent two decades failing to copy. But scale creates its own risks: debt, dependency, and a majority stake that just went to a foreign shareholder. Learning Africa digs into both halves of the story.  Support the show Enjoyed this one? Got a take? A correction? A story I should know about? Come find me on Instagram @dieng_amadu or @afrovoices and tell me what you think. What landed, what missed, what you want more of.  This show is built around the idea that Africa is not a simple story, and neither are the people listening to it. Your perspective is part of that. Slide into the DMs, leave a comment, or just tag me when you share it. I read everything. See you in the next one.

  3. Jul 22

    Cabo Verde: The Country the World Fell in Love With

    Send us Fan Mail  Cape Verde just won the internet's heart at the World Cup, a nation of 530,000 that took defending champions Argentina to extra time. But the real story is what's underneath: a culture built on leaving, an economy that turned emigration into infrastructure, and one of Africa's most stable democracies. Episode 1 of Anatomy of a Continent.  Support the show Enjoyed this one? Got a take? A correction? A story I should know about? Come find me on Instagram @dieng_amadu or @afrovoices and tell me what you think. What landed, what missed, what you want more of.  This show is built around the idea that Africa is not a simple story, and neither are the people listening to it. Your perspective is part of that. Slide into the DMs, leave a comment, or just tag me when you share it. I read everything. See you in the next one.

  4. Jul 15

    MADIBA: The man behind the icon, on Mandela Day

    Send us Fan Mail  Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in a cell barely eight feet long. He refused an early release that would have required him to say something he didn't mean. He walked out of prison in 1990 and immediately set about building a country for the people who had imprisoned him. This episode asks the question his life kept answering, and what it actually looks like to honor him beyond sixty-seven minutes.  Support the show Enjoyed this one? Got a take? A correction? A story I should know about? Come find me on Instagram @dieng_amadu or @afrovoices and tell me what you think. What landed, what missed, what you want more of.  This show is built around the idea that Africa is not a simple story, and neither are the people listening to it. Your perspective is part of that. Slide into the DMs, leave a comment, or just tag me when you share it. I read everything. See you in the next one.

  5. Jul 8

    African Players in European Jerseys: a World Cup Tale

    Send us Fan Mail  European football runs on African talent, but African clubs receive just 1.1% of global transfer income despite developing much of it. This episode traces the colonial pipeline that built modern recruiting, how FIFA's eligibility rules were rewritten to make it easier, and the paradox at the center: Africa loses when its talent leaves for good and still doesn't fully win when it gets that talent back.  Support the show Enjoyed this one? Got a take? A correction? A story I should know about? Come find me on Instagram @dieng_amadu or @afrovoices and tell me what you think. What landed, what missed, what you want more of.  This show is built around the idea that Africa is not a simple story, and neither are the people listening to it. Your perspective is part of that. Slide into the DMs, leave a comment, or just tag me when you share it. I read everything. See you in the next one.

  6. Jul 1

    What Did UN Say About Slavery?!?

    Send us Fan Mail On March 25, 2026, the United Nations General Assembly voted to declare the transatlantic slave trade the gravest crime against humanity. 123 countries said yes. The United States, Israel, and Argentina said no. 52 others — including the entire European Union, the UK, Canada, and Australia — abstained. This episode is about what that vote means, who made it happen, and what the countries that built their wealth on enslaved labor had to say for themselves when they could no longer stay silent. Support the show Enjoyed this one? Got a take? A correction? A story I should know about? Come find me on Instagram @dieng_amadu or @afrovoices and tell me what you think. What landed, what missed, what you want more of.  This show is built around the idea that Africa is not a simple story, and neither are the people listening to it. Your perspective is part of that. Slide into the DMs, leave a comment, or just tag me when you share it. I read everything. See you in the next one.

  7. Jun 24

    Ethiopia's Civil War and the Nobel Prize Winner Who Started a War

    Send us Fan Mail In 2019, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed stood in Oslo and accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. He'd ended a twenty-year war with Eritrea, freed thousands of political prisoners, and made his country believe things could be different. Fourteen months later, he launched a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of his own people. This episode tells that story: the reforms, the Nobel Prize, the election that barely happened, and the Tigray war that the world mostly didn't watch. It asks a harder question too: what does it mean when the most recognizable peace award on earth goes to someone who, not long after, oversaw one of the deadliest conflicts of the twenty-first century? Topics covered: Abiy Ahmed, the Nobel Peace Prize, the TPLF, the Tigray war, the 2021 Ethiopian election, Eritrea, and the question of whose suffering gets covered and whose doesn't. Support the show Enjoyed this one? Got a take? A correction? A story I should know about? Come find me on Instagram @dieng_amadu or @afrovoices and tell me what you think. What landed, what missed, what you want more of.  This show is built around the idea that Africa is not a simple story, and neither are the people listening to it. Your perspective is part of that. Slide into the DMs, leave a comment, or just tag me when you share it. I read everything. See you in the next one.

  8. Jun 17

    Juneteenth: The News That Arrived Late

    Send us Fan Mail African Americans and Africans share the most important origin story in the modern world. They also have a relationship that is complicated, sometimes warm, sometimes cold, and almost never spoken about honestly. This Juneteenth, Learning Africa goes there. From Marcus Garvey's ships to Ghana's Year of Return. From the Door of No Return on Gorée Island to the word obroni (foreigner) that some African Americans hear when they arrive looking for home. The reunion is real, so is the estrangement. This episode holds both. Support the show Enjoyed this one? Got a take? A correction? A story I should know about? Come find me on Instagram @dieng_amadu or @afrovoices and tell me what you think. What landed, what missed, what you want more of.  This show is built around the idea that Africa is not a simple story, and neither are the people listening to it. Your perspective is part of that. Slide into the DMs, leave a comment, or just tag me when you share it. I read everything. See you in the next one.

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Curious and expansive Learning Africa is a podcast for anyone who wants to understand the continent beyond the headlines. Each episode explores the stories, people, and forces shaping Africa today, from political upheaval and economic transformation to culture, history, and the ideas driving the next generation. Hosted by Amadou Dieng, it's a space to ask honest questions, sit with complexity, and come away knowing Africa a little better than before. 

Information

  • Creator
    Amadou Dieng
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    16
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Learning Africa
  • Show Website
    Learning Africa