Oct. 1, 2023

When Yared Markos moved to London nearly 25 years ago, he didn't see any Ethiopian coffee shops. Now, there are more than a dozen all over a city where tea, coffee’s counterpart, has been a staple for centuries. Markos and other Ethiopian coffee sellers in London say they hope to convey to people outside Ethiopia that drinking coffee is a communal experience and an important tradition back home. And since the London-based International Coffee Organization has declared this Sunday, Oct. 1, as International Coffee Day, what better time and way to learn about its origins?

Aug. 25, 2022

For Jonathan Peter Jackson, a direct relative of two prominent members of the Black Panther Party, revolutionary thought and family history have always been intertwined, particularly in August.

That’s the month in 1971 when his uncle, the famed Panther George Jackson, was killed during an uprising at San Quentin State Prison in California. A revolutionary whose words resonated inside and out of the prison walls, he was a published author, activist and radical thought leader.

To many, February is the month dedicated to celebrating Black Americans’ contributions to a country where they were once enslaved. But Black History Month has an alternative: It’s called Black August. (AP Photo/Charles Knoblock)

July 16, 2015

A Ghanaian teenager sports cowboy boots in Accra. A Kenyan woman surfs the web at an internet café in Nairobi. A Nigerian girl in Lagos wears the jersey of the Chelsea British soccer team. A South African athlete models stylish air Jordan boots. These are all too familiar scenes in many parts of Africa. They also show the all-pervasive western influence on the continent – especially among its youth.

This was my first-ever published piece, which I did as an intern at the Voice of America in 2015.