This Week in Africa
Quote of the week
“What does it profit a man to pass a finance bill and lose a country in its place?” – Nanjala Nyabola
Kenya’s anti-tax protests
What a week. Kenyans took to the streets to protest the Finance Bill in 35 of 47 counties across the country. Some demonstrators stormed the Parliament building. The police responded with shooting live rounds at protesters and dousing them with teargas. There were also reports of an Internet shutdown and abductions. Security forces killed at least 23 people in the heavy-handed response.
Kamau Wairuri explains how the use of excessive force is “ingrained in the culture of the Kenyan state police,” and these researchers discuss the security force that is beyond reform. These photos and videos tell the story. These are the front pages of Kenya’s newspapers. This is an iconic photo. #RejectFinanceBill2024.
“I concede.” Ruto responded by giving in to the protesters, and sending the bill back to Parliament unsigned. The humbling of Ruto demonstrates the power of Africa’s youth. “The people have spoken.” But the protests have not stopped. One protester told CNN, “It’s more than about the finance bill now.” Some analysts argue that for the Gen Zs, the protests are about a struggle for liberation from a corrupt government and Western imperialism.
Kathleen Klaus explains that “the finance bill was the final straw. [It] has provided a clear event and a set of demands around which to organize peaceful resistance.” She outlines four key factors – centered around the disregard by government of the lives of ordinary Kenyans’ – as the motivating forces behind the protests. IMF policies have long made many Kenyans poorer. Job Mwaura highlights the role of social media.
Mukoma wa Ngugi explains that many Kenyans feel as though the economic relief plan outlined in the Finance Bill is simply a lie, and that corrupt politicians will not have to encounter the pain that citizens do. He writes, “The lives lost simply for asking the government to center the people in its economic planning seemed especially cruel.” Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” has become the soundtrack of the protests. Many Kenyans feel betrayed by Ruto after supporting him in 2022. Lena Guthiel outlines the important impact of urbanization.
Ruto is now facing the heat. Ken Opalo argues that Ruto cannot fix finances in the country without restoring trust first. He faces some difficult financial challenges with respect to financing the national debt and appropriating funds. The country faces a serious debt crisis that has been brewing for many years. Ruto will propose massive spending cuts. The IMF issued this statement.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International criticized the US for once again overlooking human rights in its foreign policy agenda. Just before the protests, the US made Kenya a major non-NATO ally (whoops?) and the Kenya sent 400 police to Haiti to combat gang violence. All in all, this could signal a turning point in Kenyan politics.
Famine in Sudan
The Sudanese people are starving. At least 750,000 people are on the brink of starvation and death. Communal kitchens are doing their best in Khartoum. This report goes inside Egypt’s secret scheme to deport thousands of Sudanese refugees. It is beyond time to halt the catastrophic battle for El Fasher. Is the international response too little too late?
Election in Mauritania
Mauritanians head to the polls on Saturday to vote for president. The country boasts developing democratic institutions and relative security in a Sahel region that has seen an upsurge of authoritarianism, rise of terrorism and violence, and a surge of coups. The Africa Center for Strategic Studies provides this helpful overview of the election. Citizens note health, education, and economic issues as their top concerns.
Violence in DR Congo
A new report shows that up to 4,000 Rwandan troops have entered combat in eastern Congo. Two more South African soldiers died in DR Congo this week. This report visualizes the evolution of the M23s territorial influence in early 2024.
Power in Rwanda
A deadly crush kicks off Rwanda’s “election” season. This report examines the AI-empowered Pro-Kagame/RPF coordinated influence network on X. While many countries want France out, Rwanda welcomes it back in.
Governing South Africa
This event does a great job of explaining the results and implications of South Africa’s elections. Joachim Wehner and Dan De Kadt’s working paper examines the tools of racial disenfranchisement. South Africa’s new government revives racial tensions.
African international relations
Alex de Waal says that international relations scholars need to study the world “with the sensibility of an anthropologist.” Russia tightens its grip on Wagner units. This piece outlines the role of narratives in China-Africa relations. Judd Devermont argues that Africa needs more American involvement, not less.
Security and instability
This is why Burkina Faso is the world’s most neglected crisis. This is how Africa’s legislatures can improve security. Joshua Craze explains rule by militia. Joseph Asunka and Rachel Riedl discuss the return of military coups in Africa.
Struggle for rights and freedom
This is neat: Creatives for democracy. Sierra Leone’s parliament passed a law prohibiting child marriages, and the celebration begins. Niger’s split with the US is a blow to Sahel security. Brian Raftopoulos argues that South Africa’s recent election sends a clear message to Zanu-PF and Zimbabwe. Violence undermines human rights in Ethiopia. Nigeria’s national anthem change was a tactic to distract people from the real issues facing the country. This new report surveys public perceptions of peace in South Sudan. The LGBTQ community walks the tightrope of social exclusion in Nigeria. Carnegie’s Africa Forum looks great. Can a better economy swing Ghana’s election to NPP’s Bawumia?
If democracy isn’t pro-worker, it will die.
Africa’s rapid urbanization
Saint Louis, the Venice of Africa, is sinking into the sea. This Nigerian “Christian Utopia” is helpless against rising sea levels.
There is some great work coming out that straddles the divide between academia and policy. Paula Sevilla Núñez asks “Who will cities be for?” in this new report on inequality, housing, and the future of African urbanization. Lena Gutheil and Sina Schlimmer argue that it is time to move beyond the capital city to understand Africa’s secondary cities. Learn more about Africa’s urban-industrialization and housing quality in informal settlements. This is a useful report on mainstreaming migration and displacement in urban planning and public space development. What is the relationship between climate change and urban violence? Can refugee camps become cities? And get ready for Africa’s Urban Forum 2024.
This is a neat article about ring roads and Nairobi’s periphery. This is an important article about residents of Nima. Titilola Halimat Somotan’s article “Popular Planners: Newspaper Writers, Neighborhood Activists, and the Struggles against Housing Demolition in Lagos, Nigeria, 1951-1956” is great (short post here). Get this: New Urban Agenda in Zimbabwe. I need this: Urban Informality: An Introduction by Melanie Lombard and Philipp Horn. Apartheid Remains examines how people handle the remains of segregation in Durban. Can intermediaries help build the state in Lagos?
Wading through Mogadishu. A drive through Addis Ababa. And all aboard Antanarivo’s mass cable car!
Lagos Studies Association 2024
I am having a great time at Lagos Studies Association 2024. Here are three books coming out this year about Lagos that you must read: Mark Duerksen’s Waterhouses: Landscapes, Housing, and the Making of Modern Lagos; Ademide Adelusi-Adeluyi’s Imagine Lagos: Mapping History, Place, and Politics in a Nineteenth Century African City, and; A.G. Hopkins’ Capitalism in the Colonies: African Merchants in Lagos, 1851-1931.
Research corner
Yup, surveys are a lot of work. This is a cool special issue: “Global Politics: The Next Fifty Years.” This is an important article that presents a framework for understanding conflict-related sexual violence against men. The are some great articles in the current issue of Africa on water in Chad, irrigation in Kenya, title deeds in Kenya, and a leather market in Lagos. Jessica Gottlieb finds that economic informality constrains demands for programmatic politics in Senegal. This study examines spatial inefficiencies in Africa’s trade network.
Read this: Mystical Power and Politics on the Swahili Coast. And this: Ujamaa’s Army: The Creation and Evolution of the Tanzania People’s Defense Force, 1964-1979.
Democracy and corruption, a philosophy of equality.
The week in development
Nigeria considers a new bill that would further tax companies, but some worry that it will scare away even more multinational companies. A fire broke out at a new Dangote Refinery in Lagos. Ghana hopes that Kumasi’s new airport will unlock trade and tourism. Howard French discusses the empty promise of Africa’s oil and gas boom. Traditional healers are selling wealth advice on TikTok.
Check out this report on digital sovereignty in Africa. This piece discusses how to boost policy impact in development economics. Improving their fortunes in Central African Republic. Bandits undermine development in northwestern Nigeria. What to do about the South African economy? Is the tide turning in Africa?
Duncan Green reviews The Politics of Development.
Ghana’s IMF bailout
Ghana continues to negotiate its return to capital markets. This is a good discussion of the process. This is how and why the country was forced to seek a bailout.
Africa and the environment
What share of lithium-ion batteries are recycled? Poaching pressure on African rhinos is at an all-time high. Nearly nine million people are displaced by conflict and climate change in West Africa. The IMF approves $900 million in Tanzania’s budget to combat climate change. This is how islanders are saving their Indian Ocean coral reef. Fishers are dying in Lake Victoria.
Daily life
Travel + Leisure takes on Freetown. Home in Senegal might be the least bad option. Check out this handmade treadmill made in the DR Congo. Meet Bruce Onobrakpeya, the Nigerian artist who reimagined the crucifixion. The Queens of Afrobeat. Gado stands up to power. Nightbloom in paperback. Where in the US are the largest diasporas from different African countries?
All the best,
Jeff and Phil
Power to the people of Kenya