As Nigeria celebrates 50 years of independence, BBC reporters look at the impact Africa's most populous nation has had on countries around the continent - from its movie industry and peacekeeping efforts to its notoriety for ingenious scams.

Wal-Mart has announced that it is prepared to pay approximately $4.2 billion for Massmart Holdings. Massmart Holdings is a Johannesburg-headquartered chain of discount superstores with a grand total of 290 stores in 13 African countries under brand names such as Makro, Game, and Builders Warehouse. Massmart stores can be found as far away as Ghana and Nigeria and there are stores even in President Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

In an attempt to create awareness and goodwill that may help win orders, state-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (Bhel) is holding health camps in African countries such as Libya and Sudan among others to tap the growing demand for power generation equipment there.

Irked by accusations that it is the new coloniser of Africa, China is looking to use soft power and historical evidence of its ancient links to the continent to justify its economic embrace of Africa.

Upstream countries, looking to right what they say are historic wrongs, have joined in an attempt to break Egypt and Sudan’s near-monopoly on the water, threatening a crisis that Egyptian experts said could, at its most extreme, lead to war.

In a broadening of the Obama administration’s initiative to establish ties with Muslim nations, three more prominent scientists have been appointed as "science envoys" to countries in central and southeast Asia and to Africa.

Chinese writer Lijian Zhang along with Pakistani writers Mohammed Haneef and Ali Sethi will be the prime attractions of the Kovalam Literature Festival early next month in Thiruvanthapuram.

Earlier this month, Aljazeera screened a movie titled The Colony by Brent Huffman and Xiaoli Zhou. Huffman and Zhou explored the “onslaught of Chinese economic might and its impact on long-standing African traditions.” This economic colonization, hence the title of the film, is not without its pitfalls with minimal assimilation, integration, or perception of mutual benefit.