When Dr Sylvie Nantcha entered Freiburg’s city council in 2009, her election was more than a personal political achievement. She became the first Afro-German CDU councillor elected to a municipal parliament in Germany. Seventeen years later, that pioneering role has been turned into art. Swiss-Haitian artist Sasha Huber has portrayed Nantcha as part of her international The Firsts series, which …

Ghana’s president says his country’s forthcoming African Union chairmanship could provide an opportunity to bring Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America closer through trade and economic cooperation Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama has proposed closer economic integration between Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America, saying Ghana will use its forthcoming chairmanship of the African Union to pursue stronger links between …

– ADVERTISEMENT – Travel Tip of the Month | Brought to you by Reiseservice Sacco — Your Trusted West Africa Travel Specialist Exciting news for the Nigeria community in Germany and Europe: Ethiopian Airlines is launching a new route to Port Harcourt — via Addis Ababa — starting 1 December 2026. More connections. More options. More ways to get home. …

The Dangote Refinery may have solved one of Nigeria’s most stubborn problems: producing refined petroleum at home. But what happens when one company becomes so important that its success begins to matter to the entire national economy? In his latest analysis, Collins Nweke looks beyond the refinery’s headline-making public offering and forthcoming expansion to examine the bigger questions: Can Nigeria …

A renewed online campaign defending female genital mutilation in Mali has prompted Dr Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana to speak out. Drawing on her Malian connection, having been born in the country, and her decades of advocacy for women’s rights, the former European Parliament member calls for stronger protection of girls, challenges the misuse of religion and tradition, and urges Mali to finally …

For travellers, the strength of a passport can make a significant difference to how easily they can cross borders. A new 2026 ranking by Passport Reports compares passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without obtaining a visa in advance, including destinations offering visa-free entry, visa on arrival or electronic travel authorisation (ETA). The latest data …

New results from the OECD’s PISA 2025 study, published this week, confirm a pattern that has followed German education policy for years: how well a child does in school in Germany still depends heavily on their family’s social background — and children with a migration history are disproportionately affected, since they are more likely to come from socially disadvantaged families …

A new analysis from the German Economic Institute (IW) projects that Germany could be short 723,000 skilled workers by 2029 — almost double 2025’s shortfall — with sectors that already lean heavily on immigrant labour, from care work to construction, among the hardest hit. Germany’s skilled-worker shortage is set to widen sharply over the next three years, according to a …

Twenty-five years after 9/11, its deepest legacy extends far beyond the wars that followed. The attacks reshaped how the world moves, trades, finances and cooperates, embedding security into the architecture of globalisation. Collins Nweke* examines how that transformation reordered the global system—and continues to shape its future. Twenty-five years after 11 September 2001, perhaps its most enduring legacy is not …

The story of Jolloful Foods began not in a boardroom, but around a breakfast table in Berlin in the 1990s. Every Saturday, a diverse group of professionals from 17 countries gathered at a French restaurant near Savignyplatz, to share stories and explore Berlin. Then one day, a simple question about the absence of African food planted a seed. A concert …

The far-right party’s historic election result has intensified concerns among people with migration backgrounds about security, belonging and the future of integration work, prompting migrant organisations, Jewish leaders and civil society groups nationwide to demand protection guarantees and a firm line from Germany’s democratic parties The Alternative for Germany (AfD) emerged as the clear winner of Sunday’s Saxony-Anhalt state election, …

The UN just endorsed a map that shows Africa’s true size — fourteen times larger than Greenland, not the equal footing Mercator gave them. Collins Nweke* argues the real story isn’t cartography but coordinated African agency, and asks the harder question: correcting a projection is easy, but can Africa close the gap between its vast endowment and its actual power …

Plans to send some rejected asylum seekers to centres outside the EU are moving from political debate towards implementation. But serious questions remain over human rights, legal safeguards and Europe’s responsibility for people it wants to remove. Germany and four other EU countries are stepping up efforts to establish so-called “return hubs” in countries outside the European Union, with Rwanda …

Nigeria may be the country making headlines with its iDICE Skills-to-Jobs programme, but the story it tells belongs to the whole continent. From Nairobi to Dakar, Kigali to Johannesburg, Africa’s youth bulge is producing the same paradox: rising numbers of graduates and certificate-holders, and still too few pathways into real income, enterprise or productive work. Every African government wrestling with …

The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly endorsed an African-led initiative to promote world maps that more accurately reflect the actual size of continents. For Africa, the campaign is about more than cartography: it challenges a visual representation that has shaped how generations have understood the continent’s place in the world. In a striking diplomatic victory for African states, the …