Eyder Peralta
Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.
He is responsible for covering the region's people, politics, and culture. In a region that vast, that means Peralta has hung out with nomadic herders in northern Kenya, witnessed a historic transfer of power in Angola, ended up in a South Sudanese prison, and covered the twists and turns of Kenya's 2017 presidential elections.
Previously, he covered breaking news for NPR, where he covered everything from natural disasters to the national debates on policing and immigration.
Peralta joined NPR in 2008 as an associate producer. Previously, he worked as a features reporter for the Houston Chronicle and a pop music critic for the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, FL.
Through his journalism career, he has reported from more than a dozen countries and he was part of the NPR teams awarded the George Foster Peabody in 2009 and 2014. His 2016 investigative feature on the death of Philando Castile was honored by the National Association of Black Journalists and the Society for News Design.
Peralta was born amid a civil war in Matagalpa, Nicaragua. His parents fled when he was a kid, and the family settled in Miami. He's a graduate of Florida International University.
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South Africa banned alcohol to enforce social distancing during the worst of the pandemic, but the ban also had a surprising effect, exposing the country's complicated relationship with alcohol.
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The civil strife in Ethiopia has continued unabated, killing thousands as Western governments and rights groups raise the alarm on the shocking level of violence.
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The second-oldest colonial city in South Africa, Port Elizabeth, has a new name. It mixes some of the unique linguistics of the Xhosa language, yet many South Africans are struggling to pronounce it.
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Magufuli had not been seen in public since the end of February, fueling speculation that he was ill. Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan announced his death on state television. -
South Africa has registered over 1.5 million cases of COVID-19 — one of the worst-affected countries in the world. Cases are now down, restrictions have eased and South Africans are looking forward.
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More and more countries are getting shipments of vaccines and starting to inoculate their populations. But it's an unequal picture across the globe.
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An activist in Uganda, who has fought an authoritarian government with vulgar poetry, is now in exile. Fleeing a broad crackdown against the opposition in the country.
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Sub-Saharan Africa has only administered a few dozen COVID-19 vaccines. It brings back memories of the AIDS epidemic when hundreds of thousands died because life-saving drugs were delayed.
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Coronavirus infection rates in Kenya are the lowest they have been since the beginning of the pandemic, and life seems back to normal. A new song is capturing that moment.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with NPR's Eyder Peralta, who lives in Nairobi, about why Kenya hasn't been hit as hard with COVID-19 as other countries around the world.
