This Week in Africa

May 26, 2023

I had a blast at the GLD Annual Conference. Off to ECAS! Here is the week in Africa:

Quote of the week

“When mistakes involve powerful technologies, you’re going to have trouble.” – Daron Acemoglu

Sudan’s civil war

Sudanese are organizing to survive the destruction of their country. This is how two students rescued dozens in the country. Fighting continues in West Darfur. This is a fascinating analysis of the making and breaking of Khartoum. Those left behind face danger and despair. Eritrean refugees are caught between two crises.

Learn more about the geopolitics of US engagement in Sudan. Freezing the RSF’s bank assets won’t stop the fighting. Omar McDoom argues that getting rid of the kleptocracy is necessary to end the conflict. Citizens need to be at the center of the peace process. Why is the African Union absent?

Politics in Senegal

The prosecutor in the case against Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko calls for ten years. Another opposition figure, Idrissa Seck, lobbies support in the US against Macky Sall’s third term.

African elections

DR Congo registers 43.9 million people for general elections in December. Somalia’s Puntland Region holds historic local elections. Ghana’s NDC chooses former President John Mahama as their flagbearer for 2024.

Struggle for rights and freedom

Can the taxman save Tunisia? Does the state need a monopoly on violence? Can Tinubu hold Nigeria together? Why did digital technology fail in Nigeria’s elections?

Tunisia’s shadow cartoonist fights fascism. Russia is using African influencers to spread its lies on Twitter. On the dangers of prison privatization in South Africa. A time for equality and tolerance in Namibia. Erin Hern explains how women win in complex legal systems. Zimbabwean youth are disillusioned with their democracy. One of Rwanda’s most wanted Genocide suspects arrested after 22 years on the run. Researchers are highlighting the immense scale of Ethiopia’s war. University of Ghana shines. Isaac Samuel explains Persian myths and realities on the Swahili Coast. This piece discusses political assassinations in Africa. Kinshasa receives first batch of three Chinese attack drones.

Africa’s rapid urbanization

This is a really important piece about the new urban face of internal displacement in Somalia. Learn more about Kenya’s proposed housing levy. Tom Gillespie and Diana Mitlin think beyond the North-South binary in Global Urban Studies. Ethiopian startup Kubik turns plastic into blocks for homes. Tanzania will expand its Bus Rapid Transit services to four other cities. Kigali has lessons for Nairobi on how to green the city. This looks neat: Waste and the City. Pay attention to this: Kenya prepares to create permanent urban centers in the place of Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps. Festivals are a form of defiance for West African cities facing terror. A cholera outbreak claims ten more lives in South Africa.

Likam Kyanzaire’s piece is very cool: Edo city-state and fractal design. This is how Nigeria’s city of Ilé-Ifẹ̀ has survived and thrived for 1,000 years.

And read this: For a Liberatory Politics of Home.

Research corner

Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatcheni examines intellectual imperialism and decolonization in African studies. Read this gender analysis of a social safety net program in Ethiopia. Check out Melanie Sauter’s “Politicized health emergencies and violent resistance against healthcare providers.” This is a nice chapter on the dynamics of neoliberal transition in Uganda. Brian Dowd-Uribe explains just agricultural science and marginalized farmers in Africa. The Afrobarometer explains “How we know what people think.” This is a nice new chapter on African archaeology. This article examines how to move from protest to policy. This is a great special issue on anticolonialism as theory. Make sure to read Shakirah Hudani’s article “Gates to the City: The Meanings and Morphology of Transformation on Nairobi’s Periphery.”

Steven Rosenzweig’s Voter Backlash and Elite Misperception: The Logic of Violence in Electoral Competition is out. I look forward to reading Barry Driscoll’s Power, Patronage, and the Local State in Ghana. Political Posters in Uganda is cool. Relational Peace Practices brings together great scholars to present a new understanding of peace processes.

A right to research?

The week in development

Where is there scope for migration policy interventions if migration policy can’t change? All aboard Benguela Railway Station. Learn more about South Africa’s load shedding. Kigali’s new airport is 70 percent complete. Authorities are paving graves of Egyptian kings to build a new highway.

US apathy paved the way for China in Africa. Africa faces a mounting debt crisis. The future of the global economy depends on Africa. Street traders thrive as Zimbabwe’s currency crumbles. Uganda revives hope for Kenya to extend the Standard Gauge Railway to Malaba. Ethiopia faces a dilemma of a hybrid education model. Ghana is back with the IMF. Sugar is modern capitalism’s original sin.

And grand infrastructure projects are not a magic bullet for development.

Africa and the environment

Bees help Kenyan farmers stop elephants from feeding on crops. There’s no such thing as a “natural” disaster. Global heating will push billions outside “human climate niche.” Here are some lessons from Kenya on drought and resilience. This is why a major IFC solar initiative failed to scale in Africa. This is how the first humans evolved. The US, Germany, and the UK pledge support to counter the drought in the Horn of Africa. This is the largely untold story of used water sachets. Climate change causes two million deaths in 50 years, mostly in poor countries. It makes cyclones more intense and threatens east Africa’s bird population. Floods rip through Somalia.

APCG Online Colloquium

The APCG online colloquium will discuss Khadijah Gumbi’s work “Political Trust and Legitimacy Crisis in the Age of COVID-19: An Assessment of the #EndSARS mass protest in Nigeria” on June 7, 10-11 am EST. Sign up here.

Daily life

Is Rolex the watchmaker threatened by rolex the Ugandan food? G-League Ignite newcomer Theirry Darlan aims to be NBA’s first born-and-bred African point guard. I can’t wait for Sweet Salone. This is how a South African data art project landed at the Venice Biennale. Ghanaian architects bring tropical modernism to the exhibition.

All the best,

Jeff and Phil