This Week in Africa

October 18, 2024

Quote of the week

“I’m reminded of the old ways, in the decades before I was born when my village’s Nyatiti player—nyatiti is the stringed musical instrument famed Kenyan artist, Ayud Ogada, is known for—would start strumming the strings of the nyatiti and the entire village would join in the music and the dancing around a bonfire as the dogs howled at the moon, and young mothers forgot their half-cooked food on the three-stone mekos to come gyrate their lower ends like possessed kid goats.” – Tonny Ogwa on the originality of African art

Impeachment of Kenya’s vice president

Kenyan Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua faces an impeachment trial on charges of corruption and inciting ethnic divisions. But he was in the hospital in the lead up to the vote. This is a good explanation of what has gone sour for the vice president.

Sudan’s civil war

Farmers in Sudan are on the verge of starvation. Omdurman is in ruins. Sudanese fight deadly diseases, including cholera. Sudan’s emergency response rooms show the future of humanitarian aid. Tahany Maalla explains the survival politics of the RSF.

African international relations

Claire Kumar outlines the EU-Africa migration agenda. This is how to thwart nascent insurgencies in coastal West Africa. Combat drones are changing how war is waged in Africa. The Wagner Group is still powerful in the Central African Republic. Russia signs a satellite deal with juntas in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.

Listen to how the next US president matters for Africa. Judd Devermont discusses the state of US foreign policy in Africa on this podcast. Nicholas Westcott explains how the UK can reset its relations with Africa. What does Africa look like in a multipolar world? Is a transition from multilateralism to minilateralism necessary?

Struggle for rights and freedom

This piece discusses Nigeria’s fractured nation. Judd Devermont argues that human geography is mission-critical. An explosion of a fuel tanker kills 153 people in Nigeria. Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis is back in the news after the arrest of a separatist leader. Gunfire erupts near the presidential palace in Guinea. Nana Akufo-Addo has dug himself into a political hole. Biruk Haregu explains the ideas propelling the Fano movement in Ethiopia. The fight continues against anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Uganda. Learn more about Uganda’s refugee “transition.”

Nobel Prize in Economics

Congratulations to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson for winning the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Science – the Nobel Prize in Economics. Their work on the role of institutions and economic growth transformed the discipline. They argue convincingly that politics keeps people poor. Listen to this interview with James Robinson on economics in Africa.

But the work is not without criticism. Jostein Hauge argues that it ignores the brutality of colonialism. Yuen Yuen Ang shows how it overlooks indigenous wisdom – and doesn’t explain the rise of China (this chart says it all). Gareth Austin suggests that the reversal of fortune thesis compresses history. Roberto Patricio Korzeniewicz argues that AJR oversimplify the workings of global capitalism. Read the skeptics guide to institutions, and Noah Smith’s take on the Nobel for big big questions.

Dani Rodrik notes: “Congratulations to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson. They revived and made cool again the study of institutions in mainstream economics. Their work stimulated a huge literature that grows by the day.”

Africa’s rapid urbanization

Accra faces a cholera outbreak. Learn more about South Africa’s township economies and how to change the narrative around opportunity. Check out Astrid Haas’ chapter on “A feminist approach to making cities livable.” This article examines the informal street economy in Ghana. Elmond Bandauko and Godwin Arku explain the discursive construction of urban space and street trading in Harare, Zimbabwe. This article discusses the role of chiefs in flooding in Tamale, Ghana. This is a neat piece about Cabo Verde’s diaspora neighborhood in Buenos Aires.

Research corner

I look forward to Amanda Lea Robinson’s The Political Logic of Cultural Revival: Ethnic Visibility, Linked Fate, and Electoral Politics in Africa. Check out Sishuwa Sishuwa’s Party Politics and Populism in Zambia. This is cool: Projections of Dakar: (Re)Imagining Urban Senegal Through Cinema. Check out Bruce Whitehouse’s Enduring Polygamy: Plural Marriage and Social Change in an African Metropolis. Ellie Gore’s Between HIV Prevention and LGBTI Rights: The Political Economy of Queer Activism in Ghana is a must read. Lauren Coyle Rosen’s Law in Light: Priestesses, Priests, and the Revitalization of Akan Spirituality in the United States and Ghana is out this week.

This article examines the spillover effects and diffusion of savings groups in Malawi and Uganda (summary thread here). Alex Thurston recommends these readings on Salafism. Richard Fosu takes us beyond the binary of the West versus Africa. Christopher Tounsel explains the tale of two divestments: South Africa, Sudan, and Howard University. This chapter examines the colonial legacies of social policy.

The week in development

A bunch of prominent economists argue that the G20 must step up aid to the world’s poorest countries. Despite many promises, private investment for infrastructure in low-income countries is still low. Africa carries a huge debt burden. Nigeria is amidst a lithium boom. Zambia approves new coal power plant as drought undermines its hydropower capacity. Rose Mutiso emphasizes the importance of choice and agency in energy policy. Global electricity demand is rising faster than expected. Africa’s scientific potential is untapped.

Ken Opalo discusses what donor organizations get wrong on this podcast. Cote d’Ivoire’s cocoa sector surges. Patience Mususa and Michael Shengo Lutadula outline the regional and geopolitical dimensions of the battery industry in the Copperbelt. The connections between ex-South Africans and American capitalism is complicated. The world Bank cuts its Africa projections for 2024. A thread on Angola’s non-oil exports.  What does Africa want? Is Ethiopia back?

The Growth Summit is here. And Africa Pulse outlines the state of Africa’s economies.

Africa and the environment

This article makes the case for climate reparations and South-South solidarity. E-bikes fuel a revolution. These are the extreme weather events of 2023. Water crises threaten the world’s crops and its ability to eat. This webinar discusses what is at stake for Africa in the global climate agenda. Floods threaten food security in Nigeria. This piece explains how to scale-up local solutions to climate change. Learn more about how to combat child hunger. The worst drought in a century devastates southern Africa. Food of the past can help fight rising hunger. A Monsoon exposes West and Central Africa’s rising flood risks.

Daily life

Protesting galamsey. Ruth Chepngetich shatters the women’s world record at the Chicago Marathon. This is a great essay on the originality of African art. What defines the African experience? Sportswashing in Abu Dhabi?

That guy, Binyavanga Wainaina.

All the best,

Jeff and Phil