This Week in Africa
April 14, 2023
Excited to hear more about Uppsala University’s new Forum for Africa Studies today. Here is the week in Africa:
Quote of the week
“She is the best and so humble. We come from far away to learn from her.” -- Demba Seck on Senegalese wrestling champion Isabelle Sambou
Challenges of democratization
After four years, Sudanese protesters are still waiting for justice, which is stalled. The Afrobarometer finds that there is low trust in Zimbabwe’s electoral commission but high trust for democracy. Gambia struggles to deepen its young democracy as disillusionment spreads. Southern Africans are frustrated that their votes are not leading to political change. Do Buhari’s reforms provide hope for Nigeria’s future? What’s going on in Senegal?
Struggle for rights and freedom
This is how Putin became a hero on African TV. This piece examines the widening of the Boko Haram conflict. Learn more about how the end of colonial Kenya is reflected in its literature. Paul Kagame is now one of the West’s best friends. This is how to silence the guns in Cabo Delgado. On the impossibility of actual politics.
Africa’s rapid urbanization
An indigenous plant nursery run by homeless brings new life to Cape Town. There are new cases of cholera in Maputo. Filth, floods, and dry taps inhibit development in Kenya’s Kitengela municipality. Sewage and water problems leave Free State residents hopeless. Festivals are a form of defiance for West African cities facing terror. Learn more about Cape Town’s new homeless plan. South Africa’s heritage agency narrows in on District Six. Is a bigger cholera outbreak coming for Gauteng’s townships?
And the new politics of an urbanizing Uganda.
Research corner
I can’t wait to read Portia Roelof’s Good Governance in Nigeria (short thread here). Check out the excellent volume Women and Power in Africa. Sandra Joireman’s Peace, Preference, and Property is great. Security from below in Burkina Faso: Citizen perceptions and perspectives is open access. Justice Malala’s The Plot to Save South Africa looks great. The Misery Merchants tells the story of life in a private South African prison. The Lived Experiences of Borderlands in Zimbabwe is out.
Use the Spatial Conflict Dynamics Indicator of Political Violence. This is an interesting article on post-conflict restitution of customary land. This article examines digital activism and social change. This looks cool: Examining the impact of customary land secretariats on decentralised land governance in Ghana. This article explains ecological destruction in Senegal and migration to Spain. This article discusses the relevance of the African regional human rights system in the urban age. Learn about intersectionality in/through Nigeria’s feminist hashtag activism.
The week in development
This is why the IMF has upped its involvement in Abidjan. Cote d’Ivoire, DR Congo, and Kenya are the top performing economies in Africa. Thousands of children in South Africa’s Limpopo Province are still using pit latrines. Ghana is close to securing its $3 billion IMF agreement. Daniel Bausch fought Ebola and now has a better way to fight diseases. Experts say that Ethiopia’s GERD dam is a potential boon for all countries. The world’s peak population might be smaller than expected. This is how China aided Africa’s debt relief.
Is China making a cautious return to African infrastructure financing? Why is Africa one of the most unequal continents in the world?
Africa and the environment
Sudan’s fishermen fear for future as climate change reduces haul. Swimming pools for the rich are driving city water crises in South Africa.
Frontiers in Comparative Urban Politics Research
Check out the call for the Comparative Urban Politics short course on “Frontiers in Comparative Urban Politics Research” at this year’s APSA on August 30. Apply here.
Daily life
This is cool: The super female wrestler defying gender norms in Senegal. Sean Jacobs on Fighting Football. Giannis has his own store at the Athens airport. Tangier’s coffee cafes are where it’s at. And tracking down the owner of a lost wallet from Ghana to Germany.
All the best,
Jeff and Phil