This Week in Africa
Discover more from This Week in Africa
Check out my post on local control, which touches on NIMBYs versus YIMBYs, decentralization, traditional authorities, and…cemeteries, of course (thread here). Also, I will be in Accra on Saturday. Will I see any of you? Here is the week in Africa:
Quote of the week
“Gratitude goes to the millions of Kenyans who refused to be boxed into tribal cocoons. I am a very proud Kenyan this evening that the people of Kenya have raised the bar on us who are seeking leadership in our country, not to sell our ethnicity, but to sell our programmes, manifestos, our agenda and our plan.” – Kenya’s president-elect William Ruto
Kenya’s elections
Kenyans elected William Ruto for president. The vote was peaceful with minor issues, but Raila Odinga disputed the results and did not concede. PBS has a nice explainer video, and the Deep Dish podcast hosted by Elizabeth Shackelford with Kathleen Klaus and Murithi Mutiga provides excellent summary of the election and analysis of the road ahead. What’s next? The battle will go to the courts and uncertainty remains. Experts deemed the tallying transparent, though many wondered why the media did not have their own tallying system to call the race. Ruto campaigned hard, and it paid off—especially in central Kenya and Nairobi.
Some takeaways from the election? Women won very important seats at the subnational level. Many long-serving politicians lost. Turnout was lower than in 2017, as many youth stayed home (but this does not mean they are apathetic). We are learning more about what it takes to win elections at the subnational level, including grassroots organizing and connections to those in power. Institutionalization matters, and there is hope. Kenyans might be faced with a system that yields bad candidates. But the election could strengthen democracy in the region.
Who is Kenya’s president-elect? Watch Neha Wadekar’s interview with Ruto, and the Carnegie Endowment's recent event. Sarah Elderkin examines Ruto’s violent past. Meet his deputy president Geoffrey Rigathi Gachagua. This is what Ruto’s victory might mean for the economy.
10 years since Marikana
It has been ten years since the Marikana Massacre in South Africa. It is an intergenerational trauma. Attend this symposium if you are in Johannesburg. The country has yet to build a society that does not humiliate people. The ANC might have liberated the country, but now it is failing South Africa. South Africans still confront the power of the police. What does any of it have to do with Marikana?
Angola’s elections
Angolans go to the polls on August 24, and the governing MPLA face serious opposition. Justin Pearce provides an overview. Check out Mariana Candido’s forthcoming Wealth, Land, and Property in Angola: A History of Dispossession, Slavery, and Inequality for historical context.
Ghana’s economic challenges
This piece examines Ghana’s new e-levy and whether it will help the economy recover from the pandemic. Ghana increased interest rates by 22 percent to address inflation. Bright Simons provides his analysis.
The African diaspora
This is why it matters that Ghanaians in Europe travel home a lot. Do repats have an unfair advantage? Meet the Nardal sisters, the unsung heroes of pan-African thought. Somali Americans continue to make grounds in local politics. Where are the African students who fled Ukraine now?
Insecurity in Nigeria
Here are five things Nigeria’s next president can do to tackle the security challenges. This explainer examines what is behind terrorist attacks on churches in Nigeria.
Democratic decline in Tunisia
A recent referendum spelled the end of Tunisia’s democratic experiment, though it could be reborn. Our recent GLD Policy Brief suggests that much of the political competition will occur at the local level.
Struggle for rights and freedom
At least five people were killed and a hundred injured in protests in Somaliland. A royal family feuds over who should be the king of the Zulus. I love this GLD Governance Uncovered podcast on traditional authorities in Latin America and Africa. Sierra Leone struggles with incredible economic disillusionment, marked by recent deadly protests.
Mahmood Mamdani speaks on the 50th anniversary of the expulsion of Indians from Uganda. President Hakainde Hichilema writes that Zambia stands out as a model for democracy in southern Africa. A fire at an Egyptian church killed at least 41 people. This is a helpful commentary of Uganda’s eventual leadership transition. IFES has this new report on democracy and governance in post-conflict countries. Catherine Lena Kelly explains how Senegal’s elections could lead to a major political shift.
The Monkey Cage’s Topic Guides are awesome—use them!
Security and instability
This is how to address forced migration in the Horn. This is a good explainer video of what is going on in eastern DR Congo. Check out ACLED’s map of conflict in the Sahel. What has happened in Mali over the past two years?
African international relations
Zainab Usman analyzes the new US-Africa strategy, and explains how the US can help foster an African economic boom. French soldiers leave Mali after 9 years, billions spent and many lives lost. A new documentary shows the scale of Britain’s coverup during colonialism.
Africa’s rapid urbanization
I am thrilled to be included in Nic Cheeseman’s ASR review of five books examining the political impact of urbanization. The books include Daniel E. Agbiboa’s They Eat Our Sweat: Transport Labor, Corruption, and Everyday Survival in Urban Nigeria, Noah L. Nathan’s Electoral Politics and Africa’s Urban Transition: Class and Ethnicity in Ghana, Stephanie Newell’s Histories of Dirt: Media and Urban Life in Colonial and Postcolonial Lagos, AbdouMaliq Simone and Edgar Pieterse’s New Urban Worlds: Inhabiting Dissonant Times, and my Democracy in Ghana: Everyday Politics in Urban Africa.
This is a really interesting exploration into co-production and urban change (with a lot of co-authors!). What it takes to build a new Nairobi. How to make it in Lagos. South Africa needs to fix the cities it has. Don’t marginalize Africa’s informal sector (with evidence from urban Ghana). Climate adaptation is everybody’s business. There is a severe backlog of needed housing in South Africa. Has urban policy changed since the 1960s? What does the future hold for Africa’s megacities? How are cities planning for climate change? Planning corruption, or corruption planning?
Research corner
Joan Ricart-Huguet and Emily Sellars have a very cool new article that examines why decentralization in Africa and Latin America happened mostly at the local, not regional level. This article examines the legacies of Islamist rule in Africa. This article explains homophobia in Africa. This is a very cool article on state-insurgency cooperation in Sri Lanka and Cote d’Ivoire.
This looks great: Alessandro Iandolo’s Arrested Development: The Soviet Union in Ghana, Guinea, and Mali, 1955–1968. Davide Chinigò’s Everyday Practices of State Building in Ethiopia: Power, Scale, Performativity is out. Here is a thread of some great new qualitative methods books.
The week in development
Global population is about to hit 8 billion. Isaac Samuel takes on Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel. This is how the US lost to China in the building of a new Africa Centers for Disease Control in Addis Ababa. Meet the new generation of chocolatiers in Cote d’Ivoire. Somalia’s drought worsens. This is why illegal logging matters. Learn more about electrifying motos. Learn more about China’s role in global development. Russian mercenaries seek gold and sow chaos in central Africa. Will Ethiopia’s economy bounce back?
Africa and the environment
Nanjala Nyabola says it best: Climate change is everybody’s problem. Ghana has a new maritime policy. Those interested in the Peace and Climate Nexus should consider this call for papers. There are many threats to east Africa’s wildlife parks, including climate and infrastructure challenges. Women are leading the restoration of the world’s second largest tropical rainforest. Forest fires are burning twice the amount of tree cover they did just 20 years ago.
Daily life
Meet Francis Kéré, the Pritzker-prize winning architect. Red clay Tamale. All of Lesotho is above 3280 feet. Living on the edge (of the Nakpanduri escarpment) in northeastern Ghana.
Chale Wote 2022, Ghanaian coffee here I come!
All the best,
Jeff and Phil