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About AfricaFocus

Last updated June 2021

This website, edited by William Minter, features high-quality analysis and progressive advocacy on African issues, with particular attention to priority issues affecting the entire continent. The heart of the website is the AfricaFocus Bulletin produced and distributed 2 to 3 times a month to over 3,000 subscribers, including individuals, organizations, and listservs. Current issues are featured on the homepage; a full archive is also available on the site.

Other features also include regularly updated news feeds from the BBC's Africa service and AllAfrica.com, and a set of country pages with extensive background and links on each African country. The site is fully searchable.

Note: Not connected but also recommended is the audiovisual site Africa Focus: Sights and Sounds of a Continent, produced by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries and African Studies Program.

News Feeds

The news feeds on the right hand side of the homepage are supplied by the BBC and by allafrica.com. They are available freely to any website with the technical capacity to use RSS news feeds.

As adapted for AfricaFocus, these feeds include the most recent BBC Africa news at the top right. The middle two boxes contain the latest AllAfrica news on debt, AIDS, or conflict, and on five African regions. The featured topic changes every 20 minutes, while the featured region changes every 12 minutes. If you have cookies enabled in your browser, you can customize the final box on the right to provide the latest allafrica news from a country or region you select.

Support AfricaFocus

The AfricaFocus Bulletin and website are not subsidized by any government, foundation, or organization. Sustaining and expanding these free services depends on support from readers like you.

To support AfricaFocus, go to the support page to make a secure payment through Paypal or by sending in a check or money order.

Other Websites edited by William Minter

No Easy Victories http://www.noeasyvictories.org
Excerpts, interviews, bibliography, discount order forms, and more for book No Easy Victories: African Liberation and American Activists over a Half Century, 1950-2000

Mystery Places http://www.mysteryplaces.net
Site for mystery novels with a sense of place.

More about AfricaFocus editor and web developer


About AfricaFocus Bulletin

AfricaFocus Bulletin, launched in November 2003, is an independent publication edited and produced by William Minter.

Subscribers receive one to three bulletins a month with timely material relevant to current African issues, with a particular focus on topics of continent-wide concern with implications for international and U.S. policy.

To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change the e-mail address at which you receive the Bulletin, please write to africafocus@igc.org. Any additional questions or comments should be directed to the editor at the same address.

AfricaFocus Bulletin continues Minter's previous work as editor and producer of the Africa Policy E-Journal, which was published by Africa Action. Minter served as editor and producer of the E-Journal from the publication's beginning under the auspices of the Africa Policy Information Center in 1995. An archive of the Africa Policy E-Journal is also available on this site.

Frequency and Length

AfricaFocus Bulletin averages about 2 to 3 issues a month, at irregular intervals. Each posting is from 15K to 25K in length (approximately six to ten printed pages).

Purpose and Audience

AfricaFocus Bulletin is designed to highlight particularly important policy statements and background information on policy issues. It is not a news service, and is not intended to substitute for news coverage on specific topics or countries. The Bulletin does not include copyrighted material, whether news or otherwise, except by explicit permission of the originator. All issues may be freely redistributed as long as both AfricaFocus Bulletin and the original source are credited.

The Bulletin's objective is to provide accessible information and analysis in order to promote international policies toward Africa that advance economic, political and social justice and the full spectrum of human rights. The Bulletin is based in Washington, and there is a particular emphasis on material relevant to U.S. policy.

The Bulletin rarely publishes original articles, except those co-authored by the editor, but only material that has previously been published, in electronic or print format, and that is available for reposting. Our goal is to select material which is generally understandable to readers with limited background knowledge but still useful as updates to those with more extensive background.

Guidelines for Submission

Freelance writers should note that while we welcome receiving original articles as background information, we do not have the necessary staff to consider and publish such articles. If your article has already been published elsewhere on the web, and is freely available for reposting without copyright restrictions, please let us know, and we will consider it for reference or inclusion in a possible future issue.

The Bulletin welcomes receiving material suitable for reposting, by plain-text e-mail or by reference to a web link. PLEASE DO NOT SEND DOCUMENTS AS ATTACHMENTS, since this greatly increases the chances they will not be read promptly. A document for inclusion in the Bulletin should be one that:

(1) has already been published or distributed in print or electronically;
(2) is in the public domain, or authorized for redistribution by the author/originating organization (copyrighted news articles, for example, do not fit the guidelines);
(3) is from a reputable source, for which contact information is available;
(4) is relatively short (a text file less than 20K, or less than 2,500 words) and readable;
(5) is timely (normally not older than 3 months);
(6) is preferably of continent-wide or regional interest (country-specific documents are most likely to be included when they clearly relate to such a broader topical theme).

Policies

Privacy Policy

May 27, 2018: In compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), An expanded version of AfricaFocus privacy policy is now available. The previous poicy (see below) has not changed, but a more detailed explanation is provided for readers and subscribers.

AfricaFocus is committed to respecting and protecting the privacy of site visitors and subscribers. Any personal information received is used to improve our services and to supply you with news, analysis, and advocacy information that is useful to you. Neither your e-mail address nor other information you supply is shared with third parties except when explicitly authorized by you.

Data collected automatically through web logging, cookies used for customizing your use of the site, or other similar software does not include data identifying individuals. This information, as well as information you may provide through voluntary surveys, is analyzed to improve our services. It is also used to produce statistical reports on site use, which do not identify individuals.

Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on this site. Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads based on their visits to this and other sites on the Internet. Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.

Terms of Use

All content material from AfricaFocus Bulletin may be freely redistributed, provided acknowledgement is included both to AfricaFocus Bulletin and to the original source. This is comparable to Creative Commons License CC BY 4.0.