by K. Riva Levinson

October 22, 2020

After nearly six months, West Africa was cautiously re-opening its airports for international arrivals and so I could navigate my return.

by K. Riva Levinson

September 08, 2020

This is a story about impunity; what happens when state actors believe they are exempt from punishment because those who can speak truth to power, don’t.

by K. Riva Levinson

August 28, 2020

Liberians have seen it all during the past two decades: dictators and warlords, civil war and regional conflict, 250,000 dead, more than a million refugees, a generation of children left uneducated and an economy shattered. Then came stabilization brought about by regional and international peacekeepers, followed by the election of the first woman to lead an African nation, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and 15 years of peace and economic growth. (Full disclosure: I worked as a political consultant to Sirleaf when she was first a candidate and then for the government of Liberia from 2005 to 2017.)

by K. Riva Levinson

August 12, 2020

Can the American-led Black Lives Matter movement trigger an African awakening?

This is a question that Moky Mokura, the Executive Director of #AfricaNoFilter, posed on CNN in early June after the death of George Floyd sparked protests against racial injustice across the United States.

by K. Riva Levinson

July 20, 2020

Something curious happened last week. Donald Trump’s and Joe Biden’s teams both made plays for Africa, a foreign policy area often relegated to a footnote, especially during an election year. The motivations vary, but the upshot could be auspicious for U.S.-Africa policy.