Latest from Clair MacDougall
Burkina Faso Is the Beating Heart of African Arthouse Cinema. Can It Survive the Insurgency?
Burkina Faso has, for the past 50 years, been a creative hub for cinephiles and the auteurs who create some of Africa's best arthouse films. Now, as a decade-long insurgency has upended the nation and threatens to undermine its film industry, directors are confronting those challenges — logistically and thematically — in their work.
Liberia Has a Drug Problem. One ‘General’ Is Trying To Fix It With Brutality
Liberia is struggling to contain its population’s addiction to a cheap synthetic form of marijuana called kush. One powerful former military leader has taken a brutal approach at a rehab facility the state claims to know nothing about.
The UN’s Mission in Mali Was Deadly. It Also Improved the Lives of African Troops
In 2003, thousands of peacekeepers helped stabilize Liberia after its civil war. Two decades on, almost half the nation’s standing force has served on a U.N. mission in Mali. The mission was dangerous and difficult, but it brought economic prosperity most could only dream of. Now it is over.
A Rare Moment of Patriotism in Liberia’s Elections
In a region where eight coups have unfolded in the past three years, presidents have extended term limits and elections have lacked credibility, Liberian President George Weah’s acknowledgment of his electoral defeat stood out.