A magazine for the world as seen from Africa.
The Southern Meridian is an independent digital magazine of African geopolitics.
The magazine begins with one conviction. African governments, institutions, companies and citizens are actors with agency, not backdrops for other powers’ contests. We write about them that way.
What we cover
We cover power, economics, security and diplomacy across Africa’s 54 countries, and the relationships that shape them with China, the United States, Europe, Russia and the Middle East. The magazine has four sections: Politics, Economics, Security and Africa & the World. Every article is also tagged by region and country, so a reader can follow one part of the continent through all four.
We are interested in who decides, who pays and who is left to carry the cost. That means elections and coalitions as much as debt deals, ports, power grids, peacekeeping mandates and trade rules.
How we work
We write analysis, not breaking news. Every claim rests on a primary source. We name the actors, follow the money and present the strongest counter-argument. When we do not know something, we say so, and when we get something wrong, we say that too, on our corrections page.
Our full rules on sourcing, corrections, conflicts of interest and letters are set out in the editorial standards.
How we use AI
We use AI tools to assist research and drafting. Every fact, figure and source link is verified by an editor before publication. Nothing is published automatically. The illustrations in the magazine are AI-generated and captioned as such; see the image credits.
Independence
The Southern Meridian is an independent digital magazine, founded in 2026. It is an independent publication. It does not accept payment for coverage and does not publish sponsored content.
Write to us
Letters, corrections and story suggestions: letters@thesouthernmeridian.com. The strongest reader responses are published as letters to the editor. For a weekly summary of our best analysis, join the Weekly Briefing.