Chasing the Cheetahs
More than 40 percent of Africa’s people are under 15—and they’re getting ready to change the way the continent works. Vijay Mahajan | September 2008 issue In the centre of Harare, Zimbabwe, a two-story retail shop is filled to the brim with the hopes of African parents for their children. Read More...
Interview with Vijay Mahajan
Ode checks in with Vijay Mahajan, author of Africa Rising: How 900 Million African Consumers Offer More Than You Think, of which you’ll find an exclusive excerpt in the October 2008 issue. Brigid Marshall | September 2008 issue Why did you want to write about Africa’s consumer market? “When Read More...
They all can fly
South Africa's Zip Zap Circus works to end racial segregation and foster trust, dedication and teamwork. Fred De Vries| April 2008 issue A circus? Twelve-year-old Andiswa Nkebendu, raised by her mother in the notorious Khayelitsha township near Cape Town, South Africa, had never heard of such a Read More...
The keys to courage
How Mama Zula saved 100 people's lives Lekha Singh | November 2007 issue “It was a Friday,” she says, “it was sometime in April.” The militiamen were burning houses. One neighbour’s house after another was going up in flames. The men, women and children who rushed out of the burning Read More...
The chance for new beginnings
Nineteen eighty-six Nobel Peace Prize-winner Desmond Tutu talks to Ode about the necessity for forgiveness. Lekha Singh | December 2006 issue The Most Reverend Desmond Mpilo Tutu stands out as a man of conviction and compassion. Raised and educated under the racist South African government, as a Read More...
Healing the Africa within us
"Africa has been waiting to be discovered with the eyes of a lover." Ben Okri declares his love to Africa. Ben Okri | September 2004 issue Heart-shaped Africa is the feeling centre of the world. Continents are metaphors as much as they are places. And a people are spiritual states of humanity as Read More...
Confessions of a foreign correspondent
Despite being African, I still reinforced all the Western media's stereotypes about the 'Dark Continent.' Regina Jere-Malanda | September 2004 issue Looking back on many years I worked as a ‘foreign correspondent’ for Western media in South Africa, I now realise that I was not only paid for Read More...
I am because you are
Ode invited Baffour Ankomah, chief-editor of New African magazine, to explain Africa's wisdom to the rest of the world. Baffour Ankomah | September 2004 issue A friend in Prague forwarded me one of those ubiquitous e-mails that are sent and re-sent to everybody around the world who happens to have Read More...
Profile: George Weah
George Weah, celebrated as the best African soccer player of the 20th century, is scoring a lot more for than goals for his country.Marco Visscher | September 2004 issue In an era when top-ranking soccer players want to be paid to play for their national teams in World Cup competition, George Weah Read More...
Profile: Oumou Sy
Oumou Sy's fashion designs show off Africa's playful, unpredictable spirit. Bram Posthumus | September 2004 issue Although Oumou Sy grew up away from Dakar, Senegal’s cosmopolitan capital, and taught herself the fashion trade, she now reigns as the nation’s premier clothes designer. Read More...