Melissa on the road

Journalist at RFI (ex-DW, BBC, CBC, F24...), writer (on art, music, culture...), I work in radio, podcasting, online, on films. As a writer, I also contributed to the New Arab, Art UK, Byline Times, the i Paper... Born in Paris, I was based in Prague, Miami, London, Nairobi (covering East Africa), Bangui, and in Bristol, UK. I also reported from Italy, Germany, Haiti, Tunisia, Liberia, Senegal, India, Mexico, Iraq, South Africa... This blog is to share my work, news and cultural discoveries.

05/05/2026

What to expect from France's 'Africa Forward' summit in Kenya?

What to expect from France's 'Africa Forward' summit in Nairobi, Kenya?

Explainer:

02/05/2026

Newsletter - May 2026

Going back to Nairobi

This complicated year, with all its horrors, is also the one bringing me back to Kenya, a country that thought more than any other, as a journalist, and as a ongoing student of world affairs.

Melissa Chemam

May 02, 2026

Dear friends and readers,

Hope you’ve been well…

After Senegal, South Africa, Morocco, Côte d’Ivoire, my job is now sending me to Kenya, a place where I was a freelance correspondent over a decade ago, covering aso Uganda, Ethiopia and Somalia.

I learned a lot about how bias our western news cycles are, how enormous and diverse Africa is, how badly represented as well, and these lessons can impact anything we read and enlighten all our leaders decisions…

Yet, a lot has changed between 2012 and 2026.

As Macron’s France promises to be a new form of better partner for the continent, can it convince? Is it even needed?

Let’s dive… then look at other parts of the continent, and of the world.

Going back to Nairobi

28/04/2026

From reggae to grime: how black music became synonymous with a British sound

How African music inspired British cultures through the years

As an exhibition retraces how music from Africa, the Caribbean and North America merged to make a distinctly British sound, at the new V&A East museum in Stratford, London, in our podcast Spotlight on Africa, I look at over a century of black music in the diaspora, in Britain and beyond.

Spotlight on Africa

From reggae to grime: how black music became synonymous with a British sound

In this episode this week, we’re in London to talk about the history of African and Afro-Caribbean music in Britain. Centuries of Black music-making in the country is highlighted at the latest iteration of the world renowned Victoria & Albert Museum, the V&A East, which opened on 18 April in London's neighbourhood of Stratford.

The museum’s first exhibition, titled 'The Music is Black: A British Story', and offers a survey of Black music linked the UK, starting with early drumbeats brought back from Africa and going up to the latest innovations in popular music on the island.

Black British music takes centre stage as London's V&A East opens doors

Over 500 years of cultural history

From Africa to England, via the Caribbean and North America, black music also shows how the contribution of the people of African descent still resonates in the United Kingdom, from reggae to rap and grime, an East-London-born contemporary Black British musical genre that has enabled young people to create a sense of belonging, while connecting to a global audience.

In this episode you hear the director of the museum, Gus Casely-Hayford, about how he imagined a space that would attract visitors from all over the world, including from some of the most popular and multicultural parts of London.

Multitude of music genres

Lovers rock, two-tone, rocksteady, dub, trip hop, garage, drill, dub, ska, drum & bass, jungle, grime... all these music genres emerged in the UK influence by African and Caribbean music after it had travelled to the West Indies and the British Empire in general, then came to the island, especially after WWI and WWII.

But the story began way before then, so, the genres presented in the exhibitions also include classical music, jazz, soul, funk and rock’n’roll.

You can here a longer interview with the head curator of exhibition, Jacqueline Springer, a former music journalist herself turned lecturer and events curator, about how she and her team organised a display that spans centuries of history, up to our days and the latest innovation in music, including the current exchange with African producers and songwriters.

"The stories in Act III are what inspired the title 'The Music is Black: A British Story'. This is the British story," said Springer.

For instance, the sound system culture from Jamaica and reggae came to Coventry and Bristol. "Then that's smoothed out for trip hop, which still has the ingredients of turn-tablism, of singing like lovers rock," Springer adds, "but there's a political undertone, but there's also an emotional interrogation."

African connections

The exhibition also shows how musicians from Nigeria, Ghana, Jamaica, Guyana and other former British colonies, found a place to produce their music in Britain, like Sade (born Helen Folasade Adu in 1959 in Ibadan in Nigeria), Seal, the Mad Professor (born in Guyana), or more recently Little Simz, Arlo Parks, Sekpta and Stormzy.

In the episode, we dig into the history of the genres invited outside London, like the Bristol sound, invented in the 1990s, with and around the rapper and producer Tricky, whose family members have roots in Jamaica, Africa and England

Finally, we also go to the city to hear how the producer Tim Norfolk, of the duo The Insects, is releasing a record produced there in 1994 with the late Zimbabwean singer-songwriter Biggie Tembo, leader of the then successful Bhundu Boys, never heard in over 30 years.

Spotlight on Africa is produced by RFI's English language service. Episode edited and mixed by Melissa Chemam and Erwan Rome.

Mali update: Uncertain future

Malian official accuses Russian paramilitaries of 'betrayal' in Kidal

Russian paramilitaries confirmed on Monday that they had withdrawn from the northern city of Kidal, as the jihadists and FLA rebels attacked. These are now in control of the city. Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maïga wants to reassure the population, but at least one Malian official has asserted that "the Russians betrayed Mali in Kidal."

The men of the Russian Africa Corps have now left Kidal, in the north, with their equipment and the city is under the complete control of JNIM and the FLA.

This move has not gone down well with a Malian official, who spoke to RFI's regional correspondent, Serge Daniel, calling it a "failure".

"The Russians betrayed us in Kidal," According to this official, who is claiming that the regional governor warned the Russian mercenaries "three days before the attack", but that "they did nothing."

In reality, they might even have already negotiated their departure.

In other northern locations, the Russians are also reportedly preparing to leave, which would further weaken regular Malian troops.

Swift withdrawal

The simultaneous attacks launched on Saturday by an alliance between JNIM (made of al Qaeda-linked militants) and separatist Tuareg rebels hit multiple targets including the capital's airport and the northern city of Kidal, a Tuareg stronghold.

While Russian paramilitary from the Africa Corps (ex-Wagner) were positioned in the city, they drove out in the desert, over a thousand kilometres away, instead of fighting the assaillants.

The mercenaries of Africa Corps then officially requested and received the green light from the new rulers of Kidal to leave the region, on Sunday.

This withdrawal further weakens the regular troops on the ground, and Kidal is now under rebel control.

The Tuareg had been driven out of the city in November 2023 by the Malian army with the help of similar Russian mercenaries, but had spent years trying to come back.

Russia's foreign ministry said that efforts to eliminate the insurgents were ongoing. But it remains unclear where the fighting leaves Russia's commitment to Mali.

Weak reassurances

Mali's current Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maïga addressed the nation on Monday in an attempt to reassure the Malian population two days after the attacks started.

He also paid tribute to Defense Minister Sadio Camara, killed Saturday in Kati, and asserted that the jihadists' plans had failed.

But the scale of the offensive on the multiple sites - around the capital Bamako and at least three towns across the vast West African country - demonstrated an unprecedented ability to coordinate fighters from different groups with different goals and strike at the heart of the military government, according to analysts.

The rather limited response from the Malian junta also causes concern in Mali. The head of the junta, Assimi Goïta, remains out of sight and silent, supposedly hiding in a secure location.

Jean-Hervé Jézéquel, director of the Sahel project at the International Crisis Group, told RFI that, even if it's necessary to protect the leader, rumours are growing on how the junta could survive the blow.

The attacks clearly demonstrate reach, Justyna Gudzowska, executive director of The Sentry, an investigative and policy group, also told Reuters. "(It) tells every Malian, every regional capital, and every foreign partner that JNIM can operate at will inside the supposedly secure heart of the state."

Threats to power

For now, the Islamists appear focused on consolidating their gains, recruiting fighters and gaining political traction in Mali - as Islamist rebels did in Syria - rather than carrying out attacks abroad or hitting foreign interests in the region.

Corinne Dufka, an expert on the Sahel region, said the weekend offensive had moved the needle on JNIM's military and political demands, exposed Mali's intelligence failures and the efficacy of its partnership with Russia, and also demonstrated the formidable military capacity of JNIM and its Tuareg allies.

"After nearly 20 years of military interventions by the US, French, European, African and Russian partners, the jihadists have only multiplied their areas of operation," Dufka told Reuters, adding that if the situation were to deteriorate and the jihadist groups veered from their current local agenda, they might eventually threaten countries beyond Mali's borders.

Yvan Guichaoua, a Sahel specialist at German research centre bicc, said the attacks on military and government targets were intended to "decapitate" leadership and paralyse the chain of command and decision making.

According to Dufka, JNIM appears increasingly inspired by Syria's transformation and is seeking to distance itself from its al Qaeda core and "terrorist" label by governing with parallel systems of justice, taxation and policing in areas it controls.

As a result, she urged international actors to find ways of engaging in some kind of dialogue. "There appears to be no military solution to this conflict," she said.

(with Reuters)

27/04/2026

Mali: a potential partition or the end of the junta?

My latest:

Mali faces a major security crisis, as the junta's future is at stake

Following Saturday's and Sunday's attacks by jihadists and Tuareg separatists on the garrison town of Kati, near Bamako, and on the city of Kidal, in the far north of the country, Mali is facing its most serious security crisis since 2012. The consequences of these events could be bleak for the ruling junta, whose second-in-command, General Sadio Camara, was killed. Analysts say the junta might not be able to remain in power.

Tuareg rebels of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) coalition ride
on the back of a pickup truck in Kidal, on April 26, 2026 - AFP

Gunfire was still heard all of Sunday in Kati, a military stronghold for the junta, near the capital, Bamako.

In addition to General Sadio Camara, the junta's Defence Minister, several other people were killed.

According to RFI's information from our regional correspondent, Serge Daniel, at least one civilian was found dead near the northern entrance to the city later on Sunday.

The regional al Qaeda affiliate, Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, known as JNIM, cooperated with a Tuareg-dominated rebel group to carry out these simultaneous attacks in over half a dozen places across the country, as confirmed officially by both groups.

"The events represent the most coordinated offensive in Mali in recent years, involving fighters from the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and Tuareg-led rebels from the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), who have simultaneously targeted multiple highly strategic locations, including Bamako, Kati, Mopti, Sévaré, Gao, Bourem, and Kidal," Heni Nsaibia, the Senior West Africa Analyst at ACLED (Armed Conflict Location & Event Data), said.

"What stands out is not only the scale, but the deliberate selection of targets, he added. "Kati and Bamako are the heart of the regime, making any militant advances there particularly significant."

Unstable situation

Kati is still reeling from the attacks. The assailants used a truck packed with explosives to attack, striking the minister's house and neighbouring homes, including a nearby mosque.

In the north of the country, the city of Kidal has fallen back under rebel control.

These had been driven out in November 2023 by the Malian army and Russian mercenaries, but had spent years trying to come back.

The Russian mercenaries of Africa Corps (ex-Wagner) requested and received the green light on Sunday from the new rulers of Kidal to leave the region.

This withdrawal further weakens the regular troops on the ground.

The populations, for their part, are worried about potential added violence and fear even greater instability.

The African Union (AU) Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf on Saturday expressed "deep concern" over the attacks. The chairperson is closely following security developments, and "strongly" condemned these acts, "which risk exposing civilian populations to significant harm."

The European Union and the West African regional body Ecowas also condemned these attacks, as well as neighbouring Senegal's President, Bassirou Diomaye Faye.

Junta's failures

According to Étienne Fakaba Sissoko, academic and spokesperson for the Coalition of Forces for the Republic (led by Imam Mahmoud Dicko, currently in exile in Algiers), "the junta is disoriented," as he told RFI's Christophe Boisbouvier. "We don't know who is ruling Mali."

"For several years now, we've been saying that the military strategy implemented by the transitional government was flawed," Sissoko continues.

"A purely military approach hasn't yielded tangible results in recent years, and outsourcing the country's security to Russian mercenaries was a danger that needed to be avoided. So, we weren't listened to. And now, unfortunately, the consequences of the government's strategy are being felt on the ground."

General Sadio Camara was the one who had worked to bring Wagner to Mali. He had studied in Russia and spoke Russian.

"He was also the main person responsible for the events of 21 May, 2021, when the second coup took place, therefore he was an important link in the junta's apparatus," the academic added.

Meanwhile, there has been no news of the junta's leader, General Assimi Goïta.

"What is clear is that his silence demonstrates how disoriented he is, how disoriented the government is, and that the country is now adrift, in a state of utter desolation," Sissoko concludes.

The country is currently facing a very uncertain future, with a potential partition of the north, and no real executive power in charge.

"We don't know who is governing; we don't know who is in charge, who is making the decisions, and how it all works," Sissoko underlines.

He also insists that there is a real risk of increased jihadist violence, and insists that "the junta must leave in order to open up new perspectives."

Drop in normal activities

In Kati, economic activity is slow to resume. For a trader in the city's main market, the situation is not reassuring, as the markets remain closed and traders still live in fear.

"We were scared. They started early in the morning. No one dared to go outside. The noise of the explosions was so loud that everyone stayed indoors," he told RFI, anonymously.

Locals then heard that some of the terrorists had escaped. Between Saturday and Sunday, the night was peaceful, but early Sunday morning, the grunfire started again.

"Now things are slowly calming down, but the market is still closed," the trader continues. "No shopkeeper has dared to open their store. No one has gone to the market. People are only just starting to venture out of their homes to go for a walk in town."

Fifteen kilometers away, calm reigns in Mali's capital, Bamako. But people worry.

In Mopti, in the centre of the country, anxiety prevails too, even though activities are gradually resuming, locals told RFI.

Inhabitants urge the military authorities to do everything in their power to restore peace and security to the people of Mopti.

Beginning of the end?

The nationwide spread and importance of the locations attacked point to a "coordinated attempt to seriously challenge state authority", ACLED's
Nsaibia said, at both the centre and the periphery, and potentially to undermine the regime’s hold on power.

"While JNIM and the FLA appear to have gained momentum, the situation remains highly fluid and rapidly evolving."

The attacks represent "a major escalation in the conflict, a new stage reached by armed groups in the strategy that has driven them in recent years to attack Mali’s main urban centres", International Crisis Group also said.

Whether the Malian armed forces and their Russian partners can regain control will be essential—not only militarily, but for the survival of the regime in Bamako, Nsaibia concludes.

Nairobi bound!!

In 9 days, I'll be back in my beloved Nairobi, all these years later...

I loved living in Kenya and I'm so exciting to go again.

If you're still in town, and still checking this blog, let me know!

Hoping to see some of you there...

best,
melissa

In Nairobi National Park, in Feb. 2011

26/04/2026

Black British history shines at new London V&A museum music exhibition

Black British music history shines at new London V&A museum exhibition

Over 125 years of Black music-making in Britain is highlighted at the first exhibition of the new V&A East museum in Stratford, London, spanning continents, from Africa to the Caribbean, North America and Britain. I went to the opening to explore how this history still resonates.

The new exhibition shows not only how African and Afro-Caribbean music infused British culture over the years, but also how it reflects its society's multiculturalism today.

The V&A East is the new iteration of the world renowned Victoria & Albert Museum. It opened in the London district of Stratford (where the Olympic Park emerged in 2012), on Saturday 18 April, with a wealth of guests, journalists and curators.

The inaugural exhibition, titled 'The Music is Black: A British Story', offers a survey of Black music from the UK, starting with early drumbeats brought back from Africa and going up to the latest innovations in popular music on the island.

Augustus 'Gus' Casely-Hayford is the director of V&A East. The British curator was formerly director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC, USA. At the press viewing, he said that young people, in the boroughs of East London in particular, where the museum is set, "were absolutely critical" in choosing 'The Music Is Black' as the inaugural exhibition.

"We wanted something that would speak to their hopes and dreams," he told a busy crowd of journalists and guests. "Young people go to football matches here, spend their money on music, but would they come to an exhibition? Would they spend their money on exhibitions?" he asked.

He worked to find ways to challenge that paradigm.

"Black British music is the music we fall in love to, the music that we listen to at great events," he continued. "It's also the music that tells those informal stories and reflects our political history as a nation."

The team planned to create a space that reflects the stories of the global majoriry, especially from African and Caribbean roots, "the unreflected stories", he called them, and to do so "in ways that inspire and offer hope," he concluded, acclaimed by the audience.

A long, convoluted history

Reggae, dub, ska, drum & bass, jungle, grime... all emerged in the UK as offspring of African music after it had travelled to the West Indies and the British Empire in general.

The genres presented in the exhibitions also include jazz, soul music, funk, lovers rock, two-tone, rocksteady, dub, trip hop, garage and drill.

Famous voices are featured, including Dame Shirley Bassey (and her unforgettable theme for the 'Goldfinger' James Bond film), Joan Armatrading, Sade, Seal, Tricky, Skunk Anansie’s Skin and Little Simz.

But, even before them, Black composers contributed to classical music in the UK, like Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875–1912), then to jazz and to British soul music, including Winifred Atwell – the first Black artist to have a number one hit in the UK singles chart.

The show displays over 200 objects, including iconic photos but also records, documents, stage costumes, instruments, films... and even art pieces from contemporary creators, including Thomas J. Price, whose paternal family hails from Jamaica, and is part of the so-called 'Windrush generation'.

Jacqueline Springer is the curator of the exhibition. She explained to me why it is divided in four chapters, two of them digging mostly in history and sociological reflections on the place of African and Afrodescendant people in the history of the British Empire and modern Britain.

"The first act provides the vertebrae, the spinal cord for all the acts to follow. It provides a deeper history," Springer told me.

"It tells us a long story about the way in which humans, as a species, have the need and compulsion to express themselves, also in relation to social politics, cultural ideas, emotions."

Then the show moves into what occurs on the West African coasts from the 1400s onward, when the Portuguese then British explorers first arrived on African shores, ushering in "a sense of competition continentally for the riches of the African continent," according to Springer, who is also a former music journalist, a lecturer and event curator.

Act I looks at the historical exchanges between Africa and Britain from the 1400s, including a deep exploration of the role of spiritual beliefs in music and of forced conversions to Christian religions.

"We also look at how the transatlantic African enslavement was permeated and legalised in the United Kingdom," Springer said, "with documents from the British Library providing empirical evidence of that."

Multitude of genres, sounds and stories

"Act II travels from the 1900s to the 1960s, looking at music and the world wars," Springer told me. "It looks at the phenomenon that is jazz, the presence of the blues."

To her, the centrepiece of the exhibition is Atwell's piano. Born in Trinidad in 1914, the pianist and composer migrated to Britain and enjoyed great popularity from the 1950s with a series of boogie-woogie and ragtime hits, selling over 20 million records.

"That's the very piano that she played on," Springer is proud to say. "She would play with two pianos, a classical piano, and this kind of broken down ragtime piano, showing her versatility as a musician, but also the fact that she could play jazz as well as classical music."

Act III, which is the core of the exhibition, is the one dedicated to the British black music genres that emerged in the UK iafter World War II and the arrival of the 'Windrush generation', from the West Indies, after decades of multicultural brewing.

"The stories in Act III are what inspired the title, 'The Music is Black, a British story'. This is the British story," for Springer.

She gives an example: lovers rock.

"Lovers rock is the first reggae form of music created outside of Jamaica," she said. "It's slower, but it is as political. It can be escapist, it's romantic, but the vocal delivery of artists like Janet Kay, Louisa Marks, Carol Thompson, Jean Adamo, Adebambo offers a deployment of warmth and authority of sensuality never heard."

And that was really important at a time when the United Kingdom, in the 1970s, "was going through the political climate that it did," she adds, referring to immigration, the rise of the far right and movement against racism, then to Thatcherism.

From Pauline Black, the lead singer of the 2 Tone group The Selector, to Sade, Seal and Tricky, the exhibition also shows the creativity that came into black music beyond London, from places like Coventry and Bristol.

"Soundsystem culture from Jamaica and reggae was coming in again in these towns, and then that's smoothed out for trip hop. It still has the ingredients of turn-tablism, of singing like lovers rock, but there's a political undertone, but there's also an emotional interrogation," Springer insists.

Bands like The Specials, Soul II Soul, Massive Attack, a singer like Martina Topley-Bird, and the dub master Mad Professor all inherited from the innovations that gave the Bristol sound.

Springer added that it also retells a complex, rich but often crual history too, linked to a brutal colonial exploitation and the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade, including racist police brutality, inequality in media treatment and episodes of uprising.

Looking back to Africa but also forward

If in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, black British music got redefined by musicians with strong links to Jamaica and more widely the British West Indies and Guyana, during the 1980s and up to our days, African musicians have made their voices heard increasingly.

Neneh Cherry, Sade, Keziah Jones, as well as, more recently, Skepta and Stormzy, the two rappers who brought British hip-hop to a new level in the past decade, all have links to West Africa, from Sierra Leone to Nigeria.

Festivals like WOMAD also contributed to popularising African music in England from the 1980s.

"In Act IV, we're looking at imported music, this time from British born black artists, and at how it travels all the way from classical again through folk, R&B, dance, punk, electronica, rap, gospel, jazz, drill, Afrobeats, the the new incarnation incarnation inspired by Fela Kuti," the curator explained.

In more recent years, the link between black British musicians and Africa itself seems to have deepened too, with a long list of artists coming from Nigeria notably, including Wizkid, from Lagos, collaborating with other black British musicians like Arlos Parks and Greentea Peng, living and working in London.

"We're thus also looking at how art was reconfigured by British artists responding to imported music," Jacqueline concludes.

'The Music is Black: A British Story' is on view at the V&A East in London, UK, until 3 January 2027.

25/04/2026

Mali: Clashes between the junta's army and armed fighters in key cities

Attacks took place in at least four locations in Mali this Saturday, my RFI colleagues have learned:

Kidal, in the far north, Gao, the main city in the north of the country, Sévaré, Mopti, in the center, and Kati, near Bamako, which houses the residence of the head of the junta, General Assimi Goïta.

Mali's army confirmed on Saturday it was involved in clashes with armed fighters who had attacked army barracks in the capital Bamako and other areas in the country.

Since 2012, jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have fought with security services.

Community-based criminal groups and separatists have also added to the tension.

The military government in Mali, like its counterparts in neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso, has severed ties with former colonial ruler France and several western countries, which tried to help with the insurgencies in the 2010s, unsucccessfully. The junta chose to move closer politically and militarily to Russia.

Speaking this Saturday, ACLED's Senior West Africa Analyst Heni Nsaibia wrote to the media and said:

"Today’s events represent the most coordinated offensive in Mali in recent years, involving fighters from the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and Tuareg-led rebels from the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), who have simultaneously targeted multiple highly strategic locations, including Bamako, Kati, Mopti, Sévaré, Gao, Bourem, and Kidal.

What stands out is not only the scale, but the deliberate selection of targets. Kati and Bamako are the heart of the regime, making any militant advances there particularly significant. The destruction of the residence of Defence Minister Sadio Camara in Kati adds another symbolic dimension, that JNIM is directly targeting a leading figure of the regime.

The northern cities of Gao and Kidal also carry strong strategic and symbolic weight. Gao serves as the main operational hub for the Malian military in the north. Meanwhile, the former rebel stronghold of Kidal, which was recaptured by Malian forces and their Russian partners in late 2023 and has been central to the regime’s narrative of regaining territorial control—its eventual loss would therefore represent a major strategic setback.

The nationwide spread and importance of these locations point to a coordinated attempt to seriously challenge state authority at both the center and the periphery, and potentially to undermine the regime’s hold on power. While JNIM and the FLA appear to have gained momentum, the situation remains highly fluid and rapidly evolving.

Whether the Malian armed forces and their Russian partners can regain control will be essential—not only militarily, but for the survival of the regime in Bamako. There are clear echoes of the 2012 northern Mali takeover, though it is too early to determine whether today’s events will mark a turning point."