Sam Broadway is a masters candidate studying journalism and Africana studies at New York University. He is a former Peace Corps volunteer, having served as an educator in Rwanda from 2013 to 2015. His primary academic interests are Sub-Saharan African politics, socialism, and documentary photography, particularly in Ghana, Uganda, and Rwanda.
The corporate media loves to explain complex political situations through shiny figures — and in Africa, the latest is Bobi Wine, Uganda’s biggest pop star and leading opposition figure. But understanding the country’s strongman politics takes a lot more than parachuting in for a weekend.
In today’s Ghana, the socialist ideas of the country’s first president Kwame Nkrumah have been declared irrelevant by the major parties. But a new generation is reviving them and giving them an organizational home.