Sahel
The Iron Biby Effect
Since the powerlifter Iron Biby became the strongest man in the world, youth in his home country of Burkina Faso have taken up training to bulk up and get cut.
The Coup That Shook the Sahel
Last year’s military coup in Niger changed the country’s trajectory and rocked African geopolitics. After 60 years as a strategic Western partner, political and economic alliances were shattered in a week, and now the newly installed junta has found a friend in Russia.
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.