The Team

Jonathan Offei-Ansah (Publisher)

In a career spanning almost 40 years, Jonathan has written extensively on African business and economy for various London-based publications. He has also written for the UN publication, Africa Recovery (now Africa Renewal), and the New York based business magazine, The Network Journal. Between 2002-2003 Jonathan was a consultant at the Harare-based Mirror Group Newspapers where he was responsible for capacity building and revamping two titles, The Sunday Mirror and the Daily Mirror.

As Editor of Africa Economic Digest, which used to be the leading publication on African business and economy, from 1994-2002, Jonathan steered the magazine through stormy times during the incarceration of its proprietor, the late Chief MKO Abiola.  He has also done several news analyses on Africa for BBC World Television, BBC World Service (Radio), UK’s Sky TV News and Arise News. He also a regular analyst on Al-Jazeera TV and a panelist on Africa Today, Press TV’s current affairs programme on Africa.

In March 1998, Jonathan presented a paper on the Importance of Culture to the Development of Tourism in Africa at the ITB, the world’s biggest tourism fair, held annually in Berlin, Germany.  He also addressed the Blantyre Rotary Club, composed largely of Malawi’s business elite, on the Merits and Demerits of Structural Adjustment in Africa, in September 1997.

His 2005 article on China’s increasing economic relations with Africa was first runner-up in the Best Published Feature category of the Diageo African Business Reporting Awards. He was the editor of NewsAfrica, the London-based pan-African newsmagazine, from 2004 to 2014.

Jonathan has a Diploma (with distinction) from the London School of Journalism and a post-graduate diploma in mass communications from the London Metropolitan University.

Angela Cobbinah (Deputy Editor)

Started out as a trainee reporter at the Hornsey Journal, a local newspaper in north London. Apprenticeship consisted of on the job training and a short college course, leading to a National Certificate for the Training of Journalists – a qualification that represents one of the most thorough groundings in the profession in the UK.

I then became a junior reporter on the Camden Journal, a busy inner London newspaper, a job that ended after just 18 months when the owners decided to close it down as a loss maker. Staff negotiated with them to take over the title, which the owners foolishly sold for £1. Thus the Camden New Journal emerged on the back of a small bank loan, with myself as one of the founding members. By the time I left, the paper had found its feet and, 30 years on, is now part of a thriving independent newspaper group comprising three titles, still owned co­operatively by the staff.

My next job was something completely different – at the London bureau of Nigeria’s Concord magazine, where I both wrote and sub­edited. Up until then I had only ever visited Ghana, where my father hails from, and when the opportunity arose for a posting to Concord’s Lagos base, I was keen to take it up. I spent an exhilarating year in Nigeria, visiting many parts of the country as the magazine had an office in all of the then 26 states.

Since then, I have made Africa my speciality, having gone on to work in a freelance capacity for the numerous African magazines, newsletters and news services that flourished in London during the 1980s and 1990s, including West Africa. In 2000 I joined the BBC World Service’s publications department as a freelance sub editor until it was transferred out of London.

In 2006 I was appointed production editor of NewsAfrica magazine, for which I also served as an occasional reporter, giving me the opportunity to cover assignments overseas, including, once again, Nigeria. I was also editor of BlackHistory 365 and continue to contribute to many publications as a feature writer, mainly on arts and culture, another interest of mine.

Chofamba Sithole is a Zimbabwean journalist, editor and political analyst based in the UK. Educated at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) and the University of Leicester in the UK, Sithole started his journalism career during his post-graduate studies at the UZ as editor of the campus newspaper, The Varsity Times. In 2001, he moved to Zimbabwe’s oldest independent newspaper, The Financial Gazette, where he worked as a Sub-Editor, contributing opinion and editorial articles. He joined the weekly Sunday Mirror as News Editor in 2002 before rising to edit the paper by the end of the following year. In the UK, Sithole has worked in editorial capacities in the third sector and was until late 2013 Assistant Editor at Newsafrica magazine. A keen follower of African politics and international relations, Sithole is a regular commentator on global TV networks such as the BBC, Al Jazeera, Press TV and Voxafrica TV. He has also delivered papers and taken part in panel discussions at such institutions as The Frontline club, The Royal African Society, The Commonwealth Club, and St Antony’s College, Oxford University. Sithole is an active opinion leader on social media networks where he enjoys a sizeable following.