December 2010
12 posts
3 tags
“The future ain’t what it used to be.”
– That’s for damn sure. Merry 2011.
7 tags
States and History
One of the things of which I am trying to be mindful as I begin researching this book is history. Rather obviously, history is instructive to the near past and present and future—and African history is riveting. I hold a degree in African Studies, but my program was not so much historically focused as interested in producing basic social scientific research and analytical skills. I’ve...
3 tags
Lights, Camera, Africa
The Economist has printed a brilliant long feature on the Nigerian film industry—its adherants, its haters and its cross-continental emulators:
Film also profoundly shapes how Africans see their own continent. Few have access to news channels. They derive many of their opinions on neighbouring countries from the movies. More than once your correspondent has heard Africans say they had...
11 Ideas For 2011
The Africa Report is a fantastic resource for anyone who feels blue-balled by the slim “Africa and Middle East” section of The Economist. The magazine’s inspired list of “11 Ideas for 2011” is a case in point: it advocates decoupling West African economies from French custody, taxing the churches and mosques that devour the liquid income of broad swaths of the African public, and hitting the...
3 tags
A Street of Puzzles →
I’m in Lagos, Nigeria until the new year.
3 tags
8 tags
What is Development Journalism?
I have been reading over Hillary Clinton’s remarks regarding the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR), the first of its kind, released last week. She told an audience of State Department and USAID employees: “we’re not standing still. We’re asking ourselves the hardest possible questions, we are changing to be as transparent and evidence-driven and results-oriented as...
4 tags
The Year in Africa →
The New Yorker picks the stories of the year in Africa—from homophobia in the East to democracy in the West. The World Cup is #1 with a bullet.
5 tags
2 tags
“Ex Africa semper aliquid novi.”
– Pliny the Elder
9 tags
The Adventure Begins
Greetings. I’m Dayo Olopade, a journalist. I am writing my first book. It’s called The Bright Continent, and it’s about African innovation.
I was born in Chicago to Nigerian parents. I’ve spent most of my professional life in Washington, DC, working for magazines and writing about American politics. Covering the historic campaign and ensuing beltway drama of Barack Obama...