Adam Bemma

A playwright’s determination, despite censorship in Sri Lanka, to stage an immersive play dealing with LGBT issues in Colombo wins a prestigious award. COLOMBO — A sense of calm has returned to the capital, two months after the Easter Sunday bombings. Traffic has returned to the streets and even gay pride events will go ahead, although it…

Here’s what’s waiting for them. YANGON, Myanmar – I met Thant Zin Maung at his modest home in Hlaing Township, a low-income district in Myanmar’s old capital, Yangon. I was in Myanmar to figure out if the United Nations’ claims that parts of the country were safe enough for the nearly 100,000 refugees currently living…

Reporting from Kwame Nkrumah circle in Accra, Ghana on the night of the election results, Dec. 9, 2012. The Electoral Commission of Ghana announced the NDC’s John Dramani Mahama as winner of the presidential election. The opposition NPP quickly challenged these results, saying votes were tampered with during the extended voting hours.

Education was the biggest issue during the Ghana 2012 election campaign. The main presidential candidates, the NDC’s John Dramani Mahama promised better quality education, while the opposition NPP’s Nana Akufo-Addo called for free secondary high school for all Ghanaian youth. Here are voices from the streets of Accra on the importance of education to all…

Akwaaba means ‘welcome’ in the local Twi language in Ghana. Since arriving in Ghana from Burkina Faso I felt welcome, feeling like I was returning home even though this was my first time in the country. I was worried about my working visa, because the radio station was supposed to sort it out with immigration…

Hearing from voters at polling stations on election day, Dec. 7, 2012, in Accra, Ghana. After delays in the arrival of election materials and new biometric machine failures, voters remained relatively calm. Voting continued into the night and the following day across Ghana.

Kenya’s 2007 election violence became a worst-case scenario for any African nation. Flora Terah was a parliamentary candidate who was brutally attacked for running and lost her son in a senseless act of violence after the election. Terah shares her story, how she went to Canada fearing further violence against her, and how she hopes…

It took two days on the bus from Dakar, Senegal to reach Bamako, Mali and I wasn’t happy about that, but I told myself I had to make it overland to my destination: Accra, Ghana. The day I crossed into Mali from Senegal, on the route my bus took, a French national was kidnapped. Although…

The Gambia is a small country in West Africa. Government control of the media in Gambia is a serious concern. Gambian journalist Aisha Dabo fled the country after her newspaper was shut down and she was accused of working for the political opposition. Now Dabo lives and works for the African Press Agency in Dakar,…

–A toubab is a Central and West African term to describe white Europeans and Americans. I, being Canadian, embrace this name.– Dakar, Senegal. I stepped off the plane in Dakar after a long flight from Casablanca (long because I connected three different times to get here). Once I stepped off the plane and on to…