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Radio War Nerd EP #463 — Into Africa, feat. James Pogue (Patreon)

Published:
2024-08-16 02:08:20
Imported:
2024-08
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Content

Guest: James Pogue, journalist

Recorded: August 13, 2024

We talk to journalist James Pogue about his many journeys to the Sahel, from Mauritania to the Central African Republic. We talk gold & mining, revolution in Francophone Africa, camel riding, Russia & Wagner, the fading US Empire, and along the way James' stint in a Bangui jail.

Articles:-"Gold Fever in the Coup Belt: The Mines of Mauritania", Granta, July 2024-"Wagner in Africa", Granta, April 2024

*Map of Sahel

*Mauritania

*Central African Republic

Total time: 1:42:08

Direct link to this episode's mp3 here

*

Subscribe to Radio War Nerd at patreon.com/radiowarnerd

Sound production by Telescope Audio

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Order your print or ebook of John Dolan's new book Erdogan Pizza: Dispatches from a Violent & Grotesque World

Files

Comments

William

Not as good as the other African episode- the one with that NYT guy. He seemed to really know his stuff. You wouldn’t see him authoring a massively incorrect article on Palestine

NYCM&AHole

Congrats on not having world changing events happen between recording and publishing this one

Quinn

which article? what was incorrect about it?

JoR

Well it's not the Congo, but it's close! It should be show policy to have an episode on an African topic at least once a month. That way we spread out the extremely lethargic and depressing (while still being important) episodes on Ukraine and Israel

William

The article printed by the NYT that alleged mass rapes being committed by Hamas during oct 7, but turned out to be a complete fabrication

Adam m

Wtf ive never heard of Mauritania in my life…Anglo brain I guess

tormance

Great stories this episode. I’m all for more anecdotal reporting if it’s this insightful. Immediately bought his book once the interview ended.

CR

Great episode. Bring this guy back

CR

The Ambassador is a great documentary, too

Shfifty_five

Just look up Screams Without Words. Jeffrey Gettleman is the author. It's been shown to be just lies. Sorry libs you've been deboonked completely.

Hans Anders

On Congo, David Van Reybrouck could be an option. He’s Belgian and wrote a book on the country. Not sure if he’s up to date on the current conflict, but he is on the past ones

William

For all the losers asking, “huh? Source? What?” Try giving RWN episode 429 a re-listen

Yairo Martis

The cordon bleu killed me! lmao

Yairo Martis

I've heard of it vaguely before, but only now is it connecting in my brain.

Christopher Mesler

God damn, that was fantastic. Bring him back on ASAP! Added bonus to everything else interesting, he's just a really good podcaster.

Kawaii Leonard

Lmao bet this gentleman has some good Jamie stories

Randy Long

One of the best guest I have heard on this podcast..

Terry Dunk

Something that wasn't mentioned re: Wagner's success (so far) in Africa is the Soviet legacy. Soviet development aid to the Sahel in particular was substantial under Krushchev, and apparently there a still Soviet tractors and agricultural equipment chugging along in places like Guinea or Ivory Coast to this day. Lots of young West Africans went to Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University in Moscow, too, and the name should be a hint as to the mutual affinity there. Add to that their substantial military assistance to the Lusophone countries during the 70s and 80s and their counterpart being the CIA and the Soviets looked pretty good from a southwesterly vantage point. Fairly or not, and I'd say pretty much not, the Russians have inherited a lot of that good will from the recent past. We'll see if and when they squander it. Edit: I'd highly recommend trying to get Rahmane Idrissa on for any future Sahel episodes. He's an academic and has that bearing, but he gave one of the most insightful interviews I've ever heard on the subject on The Dig w/ Dan Denvir. He's also written some good pieces for NLR and elsewhere, and has the benefit of being a local.

Martin

Great ep. Really enjoy the fact that the war nerd pod doesn't ignore africa and events there.

No

Awesome episode, great guest

Ander Pierce

Losing my shit at 1:35:00 xD "I just want my passport stamped" xD

Ander Pierce

Great episode and great guest:)

CR

There’s a Netflix movie starring Jodie Foster called The Mauritanian about one of the first Gitmo prisoners to be tried by the military tribunals. Very interesting.

CR

You’re killing me

Patrick Burke

Agree with previous comments, this guy is awesome and those type of stories were what originally made me love to read cool journalists and even become one….days are long gone but this guys a throwback gem

Clay Perry

The pipe that James described the camel riders smoking sounds a lot like a dokha pipe a friend of mine picked up while studying in Oman, hadn't thought of that in forever

Anders Scholl

what a great episode, really excited to hear more on the sahel & from this guest

DumbDumDumbDumb

“I’m a big fan of James C. Scott” *Kill Bill sirens*

John Tamplin

Who is the guy the guest mentions and obviously esteems - Tom lechner?

Terry Dunk

lmao my response exactly. Then again ten-fold with 'I'm a pro-American Jeffersonian anarchist'

Self-Replicate

My brother snapped his femur skiing this past winter. He can attest to the danger and I'm not sure he'll be skiing again. Still recovering slowly.

Hans Anders

It sure is funny how Jeffersonian democracies ‘work’ at the centre of the empire but not in the periphery

fw

my brain always just subs it in with 'my good friend james cia scott' automatically these days, but am not surprised someone who's done mining surveys still rates the guy's agri mapping/surveying insights, always thought that was scott's most interesting stuff

DumbDumDumbDumb

Crazy to still think “Jeffersonian” is any sort of positive when it explicitly requires slavery

Terry Dunk

He's referring to Jeffrey Gettleman, hack reporter for the NYT who they had on the show many years ago for an awkward and uncomfortable interview about Africa where Gettleman reported from but also apparently without learning anything useful or insightful about the place. More recently, he co-authored an absolute travesty of journalism for the NYT alleging mass rape as a weapon of war by HAMAS on 10/7 which was full of holes and should definitely (although was not) have been retracted. It's here if you want to look : https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/29/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-sexual-violence-un.html

Aiden

Gettleman. The past episode is a nice capsule of Gettleman before Gaza hoax. Sweet innocent Jeffrey alas

hence therefore

I guess I assumed that this is the whole reason Pogue is writing about the specifics of the periphery - to make this exact point, right?

Trevor Wookfield

That dood was dope. Great couple hours of listening.

Trevor Wookfield

I think they won a Pulitzer for that reporting as well.

Trevor Wookfield

Who were the people that James mentioned that also had books coming out? And, did James give a date or title of his upcoming book?

Quinn

ohhh i completely forgot about that lmao, so i totally misread your post

Quinn

great great episode

Hugo

This guest is pretty good, but he had some major blind spots about US Empire. Starting off with his weird comments about being anarchist, but supportive of Jeffersonian democracy and his “chud Friends“ but really escalated when he said the US doesn’t have an appetite for civilian casualties. The Russian invasion of Ukraine looks incredibly restrained compared to the US invasion of Iraq. We killed millions plus Libya , Yemen, Palestine. Kind of gross to be honest.

PW

Rilly good shew! This guest reminded me of the protagonist in "A Walk on the Wild Side" by Nelson Algren.

Brendan O

i thought the point was u.s.’s tolerance of *u.s.* casualties, specifically?

Brendan O

found the gettleman RWN ep. from rhe description sounds great! “Radio War Nerd EP100—East Africa wars w/Jeffrey Gettleman + Subscriber Q’s” “we talk to the New York Times’ longtime East Africa correspondent Jeffrey Gettleman about war reporting in hot zones from Ogaden and South Sudan to eastern Congo; Kenya elections & ethnic violence; what it’s like to get kidnapped; and his new book Love, Africa: A Memoir of Romance, War & Survival”

Brendan O

reviews of gettleman’s book look brutal

Brendan O

gripping and i learned a lot

Ollin

Yah it’s annoying and kinda weird but hey at least he wasn’t pushing anything , also - besides some pretty alright English overdubs of French docs ab this region on “best documentary” channel on YouTube , this kinda reporting is a bit few and far between . I feel like all the pro Traore pieces have come across is just a lottery on Instagram and they’re impossible to google .. sometimes worth taking the good with the bad and just letting jt roll off ur shoulder I think