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Monday 30th June
Drinking black coffee has become a pastime for many young Guinean men. As a result many bar cafes are now sprawling across town as more and more young men take up the habit of drinking black coffee at regular intervals. The bar cafes are increasingly becoming the rendezvous of may unemployed and disgruntled youths. They say drinking black coffee and keeping company in these cafes help them forget their worries. Alhassan Sillah joined a group of young black coffee drinkers at a cafe bar in Conakry.
Thursday 26th June
Drug trafficking is big business and increasingly become a major concern for many African countries as they are being used as a conduit for the drugs trade. A rising number of young men and women are being persuaded to ferry drugs across borders. As the United Nations marks the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking today, Josphat Makori looks at the growing problem in the continent. From Kenya, former trafficker Charles Mwangi, tells Paul Bakibinga how he got involved.
Wednesday 25th June
The existence of landmines in Libya was once deemed too sensitive to discuss, but now the Libyan government is organising trips for journalists to give landmine clearing some publicity. The mines were initially laid by the Libyan army during a period of heightened tension with neighbouring Egypt. Rana Jawad recently travelled with deminers to the Eastern region of Tobruk, near the Egyptian border.
Tuesday 24th June
Ahead of the municipal and local council elections in Sierra Leone, Umaru Fofana reports on the persistent complaints being made by independent female candidates, that members of the governing All People's Congress party are intimidating them in a bid to get them to step down from contention.
Monday 23rd June
The Malagasy cow has huge symbolic, cultural and economic value to the people of Madagascar and in recent times the animal has become the target of armed bandits intent on stealing the prize. Despite the best efforts of the authorities there, the problem of rustling has not gone away and people are looking for alternative means to protect themselves. Jonny Hogg reports.
Friday 20th June
Kenya has for many years been hosting thousands of refugees from neighbouring countries including Somalia, Sudan and even Ethiopia. The Dadaab camp in the north east of the country is said to be home to more than 200,000 Somali refugees. As the security situation remains precarious in Somalia the number of Somalis is steadily increasing. To commemorate World Refugee Day, our reporter Caroline Karobia visited the camp.
Thursday 19th June
Delegates at a conference organised by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation have been discussing ways of bringing information technologies to rural areas in Africa. The organisation has been pioneering a programme to develop rural and isolated populations by providing access to internet and communications, knowledge, as well as public and commercial services. The programme is called the Commonwealth African Rural Connectivity Initiative. The Programme Director, Bashir Patel, spoke to TonyAndoh-Korsah.
Wednesday 18th June
A high court in South Africa has granted a landmark ruling that the ethnic Chinese population, are to be included in the definition of "black people". The Chinese Association of South Africa took the government to court today over laws that it says are discriminating against its members. The ruling means that Chinese people now qualify for preferential access to economic opportunities afforded by the country's affirmative action legislation. An estimated two hundred thousand Chinese people live in South Africa. Mpho Lakaje reports from a Chinese neighbourhood in Johannesburg.
Tuesday 17th June
In Kenya, dozens of Somalis have been living under constant fear for their lives after they converted from Islam to Christianity. Many who fled the war in their country live as outcasts and have to depend on alms to survive in parts of the capital, Nairobi. Noel Mwakugu met some of them.
Monday 16th June
Sixty aspiring musicians have gathered in the Ghanaian capital Accra for two days of auditions being held by one of the world's leading institutions for the study of contemporary music. The prize - a fully paid-up scholarship to study and perform for four years at a college of music in Boston, USA. Our correspondent David Amanor went along to meet some of the candidates.
Friday 13th June
Plans to privatise the cotton industry in Mali are in disarray, even the World Bank, which has been pushing for privatisation for many years, says it is worried. With world prices falling it's a bad time and farmers have still not been paid for last year's crop. Celeste Hicks has been investigating the problem.
Thursday 12th June
On this Day Against Child Labour, the International Labour Organisation estimates there are around 165 million children under the age of 14 who work long hours in dangerous conditions because their families are poor. Lansana Fofana looks at the labour situation for children in Sierra Leone.
Wednesday 11th June
Thousands of US citizens live in Ghana and some of them held a party in the capital Accra to celebrate US senator Barack Obama's nomination as the US Democratic party's presidential candidate, setting him on course to become the first ever black president of the United States of America. David Amanor went along.
Tuesday 10th June
Soa Tome is Africa's second largest exporter of tropical flowers after Cameroon. Maimouna Jallow takes us on a tour of a huge flower plantation on the island.
Monday 9th June
In rural Liberia the practice of sassywood or trial by ordeal is still used in some places as a way of gathering facts through painful and dangerous ritual, this is despite a ban on the practise. There's been a meeting in Bong County to try and find ways of ending it but as our correspondent in Liberia, Jonathan Paye-Layleh found out, there's still resistance to any effort to end the use of sassywood.
Friday 6th June
This week, three Ugandan gay activists were detained in Kampala after they tried to protest at an international Aids conference against their exclusion from the country's HIV and Aids policy. Their arrest mirrors a general antipathy towards gay people in many parts of the continent that resulted for example in the detention of ten homosexual men in Senegal in February. Some Aids activists are concerned that this antipathy is having a detrimental impact on HIV policy. Baba Goumbala is the Africa representative for the International HIV Aids alliance and he spoke to Paul Bakibinga about their concerns.
Thursday 5th June
The world has been shocked by the xenophobic attacks against migrants that broke out last month in South Africa. Like South Africa, Botswana has experienced a big increase in the numbers of migrants crossing into the country, many of them from neighbouring Zimbabwe. Their presence is not welcome by everyone there, our Botswana reporter Letlhogile Lucas reports.
Wednesday 4th June
School violence is becoming an endemic problem for authorities in Sierra Leone. During inter-school competitions, school pupils have gone on the rampage, injuring members of the public or destroying property. The police have often been deployed in an effort to quell this unrest, but the problem persists. Now students from various schools have formed the Students Non-violence Movement which moves from campus to campus educating students to turn away from violence.
Tuesday 3rd June
An international meeting on HIV and Aids treatment is taking place today in the Ugandan capital Kampala. The event will look at how treatment can best be provided for the more than nine million people worldwide who need it. Lucy Chesire, who has been living with HIV since 1992, argues that it is useless to tackle HIV without fighting TB.
Monday 2nd June
Reality television is big news in Kenya, attracting huge numbers of participants who want to showcase their talents in singing, or music, or dance, or business, or even fashion in the reality tv format. The shows themselves are pulling in the crowds too, keeping even the stations' bosses happy. Kevin Mwachiro has been on the sofa.
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