This Week in Africa

April 26, 2024

What does Kwame Nkrumah mean today? Here is the week in Africa:

Quote of the week

“African leaders, hear my burning question. Why does your ear only heed France and America?” – Nigerien musician Mdou Moctar

Floods in Kenya and Tanzania

El Niño rains have caused heavy floods in Tanzinia, killing at least 155 people. The rains have severely flooded Kenya’s cities as well, affecting its poorest neighborhoods the most. More rain is in the forecast. This video and this video tell the story. Nairobi is entirely overwhelmed.

Nanjala Nyabola says it best: “That thing where a city built on a swamp culls 4000 of the trees planted to help drain the swamp and builds apartment complexes with no green spaces and roads with no drainage instead.” Wow. And wow. And wow.

South Africa’s election

The ANC faces a political reckoning as corruption ruined the party and the state. Mesrob Vartavarian discusses the power elites and their role in oligarchic rule. Check out the latest report of the South African Reconciliation Barometer. What if the ANC is forced to share power?

Escalation of violence in Darfur

Refugees International warns of an imminent threat of new mass atrocities in Darfur. Meet the man who saved scores of people from violence in the region. Cameron Hudson outlines how to prevent another genocide in Darfur.

One year of war in Sudan

It has been one year since the war broke out in Sudan. Analysts reflect on the bitter anniversary. This is how (not) to talk about the war. Has the world turned a blind eye to the crisis? Can the humanitarian crisis be stopped?

Photographer Ala Kheir documents a fractured life in limbo.

Withdrawal of US troops

The US will withdraw troops from Chad, signaling another challenge to its Africa policy. They will withdraw troops from Niger, too. The White House knows that the global south has a point. Who is afraid of the global south?

Struggle for rights and freedom

Learn more about the surprising triumph of Eritrea’s Issaias Afwerki. Vijay Prasad explains how Africa’s liberation struggles brought democracy to Europe. Tanzania’s opposition faces an uphill battle. Mali’s junta is taking an authoritarian turn. Somaliland plans to hold elections on November 13. Access to information is a work in progress. This is why Togo’s politicians disagree over a constitutional change. South Sudan is at a critical crossroads as it gears up for elections.

Do Africans want elections? Will Senegal’s president shake up external relations? Do African problems have African solutions? Why are Kenya’s doctors on strike?

Migration and displacement

Tunisia’s Coast Guard recovers the bodies of 14 migrants off the Djerba coast. This is why so many policies to lower migration actually increase it. The UK signs a bill that will send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Security and instability

Violence is escalating in northern Cameroon as different groups fight for water. Ramaphosa extends its deployment of troops to Mozambique. This report analyzes Nigeria’s fight against Boko Haram ten years after the Chibok episode. What’s behind the recent clashes in Ethiopia?

Africa’s rapid urbanization

Meelan Thondoo discusses how heat, flood, and diseases threaten Africa’s megacities. Authorities are demolishing the historic heart of Addis Ababa. Violence in eastern DR Congo is transforming Goma. A changing Freetown. Victims of forced evictions in Lagos ask: What is our offense? Could shipping containers be the solution to Ghana’s housing crisis? (Probably not).

This study finds that public recognition can encourage neighborhood residents to engage in clean-up exercises in urban Senegal. This article examines water infrastructures in Cape Town. Read this: Contested Mobility Norms in Africa: Reconciling Visions, Policies and Practice. Urban Slums and Circular Economy Synergies in the Global South looks interesting.

Research corner

Carolyn Brown explains Harlem, Addis, and Johannesburg: African solidarity and African American internationalism in Harlem from the 1960s to the 1990s. Learn more about the construction of the terrorist threat in Mali. Bizuneh Yimenu examines the political economy of fiscal transfers in Ethiopia. This article examines trust and citizenship across Africa. Joeva Rock and her colleagues examine GMOs and their implications for gene editing. Read Natalie Letsa’s APSR article “Partisanship and Political Socialization in Electoral Autocracies” with evidence from Cameroon. This GLD Working Paper examines social media and incumbent support in Malawi. What is the impact of large-scale land acquisitions on child food insecurity in Africa?

Sishuwa Sishuwa’s Party Politics and Populism in Zambia is available for pre-order. This looks neat: African Migration and the Novel: Exploring Race, Civil War, and Environmental Destruction. Check it out: Marketplace Dignity: Transforming How We Engage with Customers Across Their Journey. Check out Martin Thomas’ The End of Empires and a World Remade: A Global History of Decolonization. Catherine Boone’s Inequality and Political Cleavage in Africa: Regionalism by Design is one of the books of the year.

The week in development

Vaccines have saved the lives of 146 million infants. Africa’s growth dividend presents a great opportunity, but only if countries invest in education. Turkey will drill for oil off Somalia’s coast starting in 2025. Global chains are fueling a hotel boom in Africa. Senegalese schools work to integrate deaf and hard of hearing students. Nigeria is pioneering a new vaccine to fight meningitis. This is super cool: An integrative visualization of the relationship between gender inequality, climate change, and water insecurity. The allure of Africa is fading for some multinational corporations.

Justin Sandefur provides this timeline of the World Bank child sexual abuse scandal (summary thread here). A South African urban poor worker makes a lot less than a poor Vietnamese worker. Gabriel Zucman summarizes recent World Bank/IMF meetings. The World Bank calls for a shake-up of its debt relief scheme. Adam Tooze outlines the disaster of development finance. Ethiopia has a $2 billion plan to build a new airport. Where will the world be in six years?

Duncan Green is moving on from Oxfam after 20 years, and discusses what he has learned from humiliation, shame and failure.

China and Africa

China remains an important partner for African countries. W. Gyude Moore outlines the challenges of infrastructure on the continent. In this video, he explains the allure of Chinese goods. Karuti Kanyinga explains the benefits and challenges of Chinese investment. The US has invested in a $1.7 billion railway in the Lobito corridor to counter China’s rise on the continent. China is extending its lead over the US in Africa’s energy transition.

Extraction and minerals

African critical minerals output could reach $2 trillion by 2050. Congo questions Apple on concerns about the use of conflict minerals. The company is facing new scrutiny. A Congolese copper mine is suspended due to radiation concerns. Learn more about the history of colonialism and forced labor in DR Congo. A new study documents the impact of gold mining on local populations in Mali. Gold exports surge in Sudan. This is how foreign companies wound up with surprising tax bills in the DR Congo. The M23 and electric vehicles are fueling new violence.

Festival Godwin Boateng and Jacqueline Klopp ask the fundamental question: Is the electric vehicle transition a blessing or a curse for improving extractive industries and mineral supply chains?

Africa and the environment

Chris Gore examines Kenya’s transition to clean energy for all. All options are on the table for Africa’s energy transition. World Resources Institute outlines a plan for climate adaptation by 2025. Check out this research agenda for climate change and peacebuilding. This report explains how to leverage livelihood diversification for peacebuilding in climate- and conflict-affected contexts. Helen Onyeaka explains how to end hunger.

Upcoming workshops

Check out CODESRIA’s summer school in African studies. The Program on African Social Research (PASR) invites proposals to participate in a Junior Scholars Workshop on the Political Economy of Inequality in Africa in Zambia in August.

Join us for the workshop “Building sustainable cities: The politics of provision, implementation and management” at APSA in September 4 in Philadelphia. The short course seeks papers that examine how residents demand rights to the city; the politics of service provision; the process of implementation, and; the long-term management of cities. Sign up here by May 15 if you are interested in presenting.

Daily life

Nigerien musician Mdou Moctar’s guitar is a siren song against colonialism. Johannesburg in a time of darkness. West African fashion designers are global leaders in producing sustainable clothing. A peculiar people. Meet Nigerian chessmaster Tunde Onakoya. Read Paul Goldsmith’s “Magogoni Before the Port.” Kenyans dominate the London Marathon. Meet the man directing Somalia’s top shows. Whose Bienalle is it anyway?

RIP Kenyan activist Zarina Patel.

All the best,

Jeff and Phil