Michael Schmidt
Michael Schmidt is a Johannesburg-based investigative journalist who has worked in 47 countries on six continents. His main focus areas as an Africa correspondent for leading mainstream journals are emerging and high-end technologies, political developments, conflict resolution and transitional justice, and on the continent’s maritime and littoral spaces.  
Africa’s diverse criminal landscape

Africa’s diverse criminal landscape

The evolution of criminal networks across Africa is a complex tale crossing centuries – but the continent's integration into the global economy, especially after the advent of democracy in the wake of the Cold War, has consolidated gangsterism as never before. The...

South Africa: when a blessing is a curse

South Africa: when a blessing is a curse

Statutory rape has swept South Africa over the past five years as evidenced by the number of girls aged 10 to 14 years giving birth at public health facilities, which has soared by almost 50%. It is a healthcare crisis worsened by children confined to home under...

The hole in Africa’s heart

The hole in Africa’s heart

Africa’s ‘lawless third’: duty of care Swathes of the continent are home to people whose efforts at self-rule or traditional ways of life have challenged state attempts to deal with COVID-19 The lack of access to healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic experienced by...

Local heroes

Local heroes

The media: no place to hide Journalism is a high-risk job for African reporters, who are often not only undertrained and underpaid but also face jail, injury, even death A promising young journalist told me of covering a recent riot and tweeting an update on the...

Mapping ethnic conflicts

Mapping ethnic conflicts

Africa: an artificial patchwork? Understanding the dynamics of ethnic conflicts in Africa means appreciating the role of ethnic identity In 2011 Peter S. Larson, a professor at the University of Nagasaki, Japan, published an attempt to chart the interplay between...

Reporting ethnicity in African politics

Reporting ethnicity in African politics

Africa: the scourge of ethnicity Understanding ethnicity—inherited or imposed—can go a long way to ensure accurate coverage of conflict in Africa As a journalist I have covered a range of conflicts, some of which had a clearly ethnic dimension. But ethnicity is a...

Michael Schmidt
Michael Schmidt is a Johannesburg-based investigative journalist who has worked in 47 countries on six continents. His main focus areas as an Africa correspondent for leading mainstream journals are emerging and high-end technologies, political developments, conflict resolution and transitional justice, and on the continent’s maritime and littoral spaces.  
Africa’s diverse criminal landscape

Africa’s diverse criminal landscape

The evolution of criminal networks across Africa is a complex tale crossing centuries – but the continent's integration into the global economy, especially after the advent of democracy in the wake of the Cold War, has consolidated gangsterism as never before. The...

South Africa: when a blessing is a curse

South Africa: when a blessing is a curse

Statutory rape has swept South Africa over the past five years as evidenced by the number of girls aged 10 to 14 years giving birth at public health facilities, which has soared by almost 50%. It is a healthcare crisis worsened by children confined to home under...

The hole in Africa’s heart

The hole in Africa’s heart

Africa’s ‘lawless third’: duty of care Swathes of the continent are home to people whose efforts at self-rule or traditional ways of life have challenged state attempts to deal with COVID-19 The lack of access to healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic experienced by...

Local heroes

Local heroes

The media: no place to hide Journalism is a high-risk job for African reporters, who are often not only undertrained and underpaid but also face jail, injury, even death A promising young journalist told me of covering a recent riot and tweeting an update on the...

Mapping ethnic conflicts

Mapping ethnic conflicts

Africa: an artificial patchwork? Understanding the dynamics of ethnic conflicts in Africa means appreciating the role of ethnic identity In 2011 Peter S. Larson, a professor at the University of Nagasaki, Japan, published an attempt to chart the interplay between...