a recommendation for monday

Do you follow the African Arguments blog? If not, you should subscribe. A joint project of the Royal African Society and the Social Science Resource Council, African Arguments has quickly become one of my go-to references for high-quality, in-depth analysis of African politics and economics. What I particularly like about the blog is that it features local voices - especially local journalists and academics - whenever possible. It also features analysis by foreign academics with years of experience in the countries about which they write.

I also like African Arguments because it runs features you won't see anywhere else on topics that are typically missed by the Western press. Here are a few recent favorites that emphasize that point. All are well worth your time:

• An excellent backgrounder on Somalia's al-Shabaab.
• A discussion of the political roots of the Somalia famine.
• What African state hosts more foreign militaries than any other, including troops from the US, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, China, the EU, and Japan? If you didn't guess Djibouti, click on over to learn more about this under-studied country here.
  
• What will Cameroon look like after Paul Biya?
• A novel discussion of the potential effects of the Dodd-Frank Act's transparency requirements in Equatorial Guinea's oil sector.
  
• Is Swaziland facing a political, economic, and well-being crisis?