This Week in Africa
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I had so much fun at this week’s GLD Annual Conference “Giving and Taking: Studies on Extraction and Participation in Local Governance.” Here is the week in Africa:
Quote of the week
“The emergence of ‘Replacement Theory’ in mainstream Western thought should be the clearest sign of the panicked reaction we will see when one out of every human being alive is African. To cede the development of Africa to ‘others’ is dangerously naive.” W. Gyude Moore
Flooding in Accra
Accra flooded this week, as it does every year. This video and this one tells the story. Better policy can address frequent flooding in coastal cities. And don’t forget the everyday politics.
Growing opposition in Angola
Angola’s ruling party faces stiff opposition in the upcoming poll. The regime is pushing back. Stay tuned.
Kenya’s 2022 election
IRI/NDI offers a joint statement on Kenya’s 2022 election. Meet the running mates. Is Martha Karua a game-changer? What will Kalonzo Musyoka do now? The campaigns are in full swing. This is how the judiciary can help break the cycle of violence.
Struggle for rights and freedom
Queer Ghanaians fear there are more arrests to come. Senegal is decolonizing its heritage and reclaiming its future. Victims re-write Jammeh-era history at Memory House in the Gambia. Africa’s stolen art debate is frozen in time. A devastating hospital fire killed 11 infants in Senegal. This is what M23’s on-and-off insurgency tells us about DRC’s precarious search for peace. Xenophobia in South Africa mimics Apartheid-era violence. For Africans in China, the country is a dreamland and an accidental destination. Ethiopia is cracking down in Amhara. 76 people are missing after a boat full of migrants sinks off the coast of Tunisia. Learn more about the Muhoozi Project in Uganda.
Pastor, professor, and now politician: Will Yemi Osinbajo win Nigeria’s presidential election?
Research corner
This looks great: Wealth, Land, and Property in Angola: A History of Dispossession, Slavery, and Inequality. The first title in the Future Rural Africa Series is Pokot Pastoralism: Environmental Change and Socio-Economic Transformation in North-West Kenya. In his new book, Evan Liberman argues that South Africa’s post-Apartheid experience represents a success story for democracy. Fiona Shen Bayh’s book is out soon: Undue Process: Persecution & Punishment in Autocratic Courts. I really like the cover. The Politics of Precarity examines extractivism and dispossession in Mozambique. This new book examines political settlements and development. Check it out: Postcolonial People: The Return from Africa and the Remaking of Portugal.
Psychology should generalize from – not just to – Africa. Check out this entry on the Globalization of Environmental Research. Take a look at “Streaming Hate: Exploring the Harm of Anti-Banyamulenge and Anti-Tutsi Hate Speech on Congolese Social Media.” Check out this article on forced displacement and asylum policy in the developing world. Learn about how post-conflict states seek international status by narrating new identities. This article examines youth political participation in Zambia. Christopher Gore has an excellent review essay on the politics of the internet and social media in Africa. Sebastian van Baalen explains how civilians can make rebels more responsive. Where, and why, is North Africa? Who governs Somalia?
Africa, center stage of a changing reality.
Africa’s rapid urbanization
On urban inhabitation and the urban technical. This piece examines platform politics and Silicon Savannah. The vertical gardens of Nairobi, are…dead. Experts meet in Kigali to discuss the future of green cities. A building collapse killed four people in Lagos. On Makoko. I can’t wait to read Tom Goodfellow’s Politics and the Urban Frontier. Check this out: Against the Commons: A Radical History of Urbanization. Get your copy of Pandemic Urbanism. Read this review of experimental informal urbanism initiatives and their implications for sub-Saharan Africa’s sustainable cities’ agenda. Antonio Tomas’ In the Skin of the City: Spatial Transformation in Luanda looks fantastic.
Can southern cities generate inclusive development? Does Mike Sonko have a chance in Mombasa? This is a great thread on population growth and replacement theory.
The Old Parks, New Futures project is great – with a new website!
The week in development
France will invest $4.2 billion in Tanzania over the next five years. A century-old canal project sparks opposition in South Sudan. Big infrastructure projects should work for everyone. This article examines the macroeconomic impact of COVID-19 in Mozambique. A startup in Ghana is striving for greater participation in cancer research. Africa can move toward an integrated digital payment landscape. Is Ghana Africa’s most expensive place to live? Who owns Achimota Forest? Could blockchain make Africa richer?
Africa and the environment
This Sudan sanctuary offers a haven for exotic birds. Rising sea level is contributing to erosion along Senegal’s coast. This thread outlines the drought that is ravaging northern Kenya. Security concerns and lack of support stall Africa’s Green Wall. Farmers sue Shell for oil spills in Nigeria.
And this: Bullshit in the sustainability and transitions literature: a provocation.
Daily life
I look forward to watching “City of Bukom,” a documentary about boxing in Ga Mashie, Accra. The free ambulances of Mogadishu. Statue de l'Amazone. Walking London after walking Dakar. Kendrick Lamar releases his album from Ghana.
O mother, where art though?
All the best,
Jeff and Phil