As always, GLD is doing A LOT. Here is the week in Africa:
Quote of the week
“The city is culpable for more of the deaths than the guy who started the fire.” – Immigrant rights activist Nigel Branken on the Johannesburg building fire
Explosion in Nairobi
A massive gas explosion kills at least three people and injures more than 300 in Nairobi. The explosion was in the industrial neighborhood of Embakasi. Stay tuned.
Future of ECOWAS
Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger quit ECOWAS. Olivier Walther argues that this will have devastating consequences.
LGBTQ rights
Ghana’s John Mahama condemns LGBTQ practices, citing his faith. How did Western donors react to Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ act?
Struggle for rights and freedom
Sean Jacobs explains how South Africa sees its moral conscience in a Genocide case. Duncan Money remembers Kenneth Kaunda, Africa’s last anti-colonial leader. The ANC suspends former president Jacob Zuma. Isaac Samuel uncovers the history of state-society relations in southern Ethiopia. Hundreds protest against violence women in Kenya. Somali parents agonize over missing migrants.
A shocking confession upends the case of the deadly building fire in Johannesburg. The case of Senegal demonstrates how to nobble a political opponent and get away with it. Sudan is now the largest internal displacement crisis globally. This podcast discusses Ethiopia’s push for sea access. Central African Republic has an astronomical death rate, but why is it invisible to the world?
Check out the Wilson Center’s “Africa: Year in Review 2023.” And Brookings provides its Foresight Africa 2024 report.
Security and instability
Hundreds of peacekeepers are losing a path to economic mobility as the UN Mission in Mali winds down. Joseph Sany and Kehinde Togun explain how to counter Africa’s coup problem. Drone strikes in Burkina Faso killed scores of civilians. This piece outlines sources of success in counterinsurgency.
Hambisa Belina asks: Is Ethiopia’s disintegration an inevitable and necessary evil?
Africa’s rapid urbanization
Kenya’s Eldoret seeks city status. South Africa is failing people who aren’t poor, but aren’t middle class either. Nairobi’s new borough system will be costly. I am very intrigued by the developments at the Kibera Public Space project. Building the Just City in Tanzania. A growing Dar es Salaam. eThekwini residents demand water in their taps. This South African city built on coal faces an uncertain future. Can the ambitious Accra City Extension Project become successful?
A must-read: DIY Urbanism in Africa.
Research corner
There are some good articles in this month’s APSR, including Mai Hassan’s “Coordinated Dis-Coordination” on Sudan, Josef Woldense and Alex Kroeger’s article on authoritarian persistence in Africa at the end of the Cold War, and Kristen Kao, Ellen Lust, Marwa Shalaby, and Chagai Weiss’ results from a harmonized experiment on female representation in Jorda, Morocco, and Tunisia. This study finds that job employment is politically un-empowering for women in Ethiopia.
This is a very good review essay on informal institutions in comparative politics, which features Shelby Grossman’s excellent book The Politics of Order in Informal Markets, which focuses on Nigeria. Learn more about recent approaches to the study of health, healing, illness, and care in Africa. Marcel Paret outlines the limitations and possibilities for democracy from below. Erik Gobbers provides this helpful assessment of ethnic organizations in Katanga, DR Congo. Cliff Kodero rethinks African regionalism.
Sam Hickey and Kunal Sen’s Pathways to Development: From Politics to Power looks great. Check out Hilary Matfess’ In Love and at War: Marriage in Non-state armed groups. And Political Science in Africa: Freedom, Relevance, Impact is important.
The week in development
Cameroon starts the world’s first malaria vaccine rollout. Afrobarometer’s Joe Asunka highlights the crucial role of data in effective governance. Ghana’s economy is still not in great shape. Zimbabwe’s currency crashes to its lowest since the 2019 revamp. Africa’s growth stage start-ups are reeling from departure of big tech investors. This is how Paul Kagame engineered one of Africa’s most dramatic turnarounds.
Africa and the environment
Ken Opalo is right: Wealthy countries can’t fault African countries for producing fossil fuels. Focusing on African production will not pull Africans out of poverty, nor will it solve the climate crisis. This is an excellent article about the effort to put e-bikes on the road in Benin, Togo, Rwanda, and Kenya. Kalonzo Musyoka explains why Kenya is hopeful but hesitant about the Loss and Damage Fund. The threat of terrorism is growing in West Africa’s forests.
This is where groundwater levels are falling and rising worldwide. Climate change is forcing African migrants into dangerous treks by land and sea. Italy announces a $6 billion plan to strengthen its partnerships with African countries. Officials say that climate change is behind a surge in cholera. Morocco is on drought alert.
Daily life
From Zanzibar to Marbach. Director Blitz Bazawule on The Color Purple. The new and improved Entebbe Airport.
And Aili Tripp provides this nice reflection of Cecilia Barbara Atim Ogwal, one of Uganda’s longest-serving female legislators.
All the best,
Jeff and Phil