Too many African schools worship the idea of education but then teach nothing useful. A school in rural Uganda points the way to a brighter future

A small girl I encounter outside a Ugandan refugee camp somehow persuades me to pay her school fees. I soon find myself caught up in an ambiguous African story of doubt, mistrust and guilt

Uncle Sam unwittingly brings peace to Somalia. The problem of old men in Africa. And is the international criminal court an obstacle to peace?

Kinshasa's general hospital has stood through revolution, civil war and civic breakdown. It is a touchstone of change in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Neglectful rulers and faddish aid policies have led to the steady decline of African universities. Are they now due for a rebirth? Plus the truth about remittances

Three of Africa's big leaders—Mbeki, Obasanjo and Museveni—need a successor. Is it time for more women leaders on the continent?

China is reintroducing a bit of geopolitical competition to Africa, and undermining western "conditionality." And watch out for Kenya's transport minister

Elites in the Asian tiger countries run the state in the public interest. In most of Africa, elites run the state in their own interests. Matthew Lockwood has written the best Africa book this year

Why did the west ignore Rwanda? One reason was the distraction of South Africa's first elections

The conscience of the Blair cabinet is a leading exponent of globalisation with a human face. The leftist republican has become a benign imperialist. Just don't criticise her policy on Rwanda

Half of Africa is heading for hell, while in the rest life is improving surprisingly fast. Under Laurent Kabila, the new Democratic Republic of Congo could become the continent's dynamic heart

Africa's crises cannot be solved by redrawing borders. But economic reform, the decline of the urban middle class and the rise of tribalism are dissolving the old centralised post-colonial state