This Week in Africa
Discover more from This Week in Africa
What a month it’s been at GLD. Here is the week in Africa:
Quote of the week
“Will continue to argue that African left communities could learn a lot from the Americas and should build bridges with comrades there.” – Chris O. Ògúnmọ́dẹdé
Governing South Africa
The ANC has gone from courage to collapse. President Ramaphosa faces a lot of questions over the burglary of money from his farm – and why he did not report it. Vigilantism in South Africa carries historical imprints of past violence against black people. Will the new Zulu King wield his father’s political influence?
Census politics in Sierra Leone
Issa Kamara explains the politics of the census in Sierra Leone. Jamie Hitchen discusses why the opposition is crying foul.
Maasai evictions in Tanzania
Why are the Maasai being “relocated” in Tanzania? Tanzanians fear more violence over bid to evict Maasai from their ancestral lands.
Ethiopia’s civil war
A new report finds that jailed Tigrayans face squalor and disease. Desperate Tigrayans face starvation or forced conscription. Officials and news reports allege that the Oromo Liberation Army killed at least 200 members of the Amhara ethnic group in a rebel attack last week. A peace process is possible, but obstacles remain.
Kenya’s presidential election
This podcast discusses the rollercoaster ahead of Kenya’s August election. Christine Mungai explains why Ruto and Odinga remain quiet on land justice issues. Ruto is facing backlash from voters in the Mt. Kenya region over the choice of his running mate. Here’s how much it costs to run for office in Kenya.
Struggle for rights and freedom
An attack on a church in one of Nigeria’s safest states is dominating conversations about security and government priorities. There have been over 107,000 reports of internal displacements across Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria, Mozambique and Cameroon in the past few weeks as a result of insecurity and conflict. A Congolese soldier is killed in Rwanda, as violence escalates in the border region.
Is Uganda heading toward a dynastic succession? Why do African young people value China higher than the US? What are the real goals of Uganda’s Operation Shujaa in the DR Congo? “Racism for sale” is a fascinating documentary about a Chinese video-making industry that exploits vulnerable children across the continent. This is how Patrice Lumumba’s assassination drove student activism, shaping the Congo’s future. LGBTI refugees seeking protection in Kenya struggle to survive in a hostile environment.
Yes, Benin matters.
Africa’s rapid urbanization
How can we use geospatial data and machine learning to map poverty in urban areas? Could retrofitting and repurposing abandoned buildings help tackle Cape Town’s housing shortage? Ethiopia’s capital is a showcase for its leader’s ambition. Durban will ration water for a year, another hit to the economy after severe flooding. This is a cool article on urban gardens (read alongside Chris Gore’s paper on food policy and urban agriculture in African cities). Axolile Notywala discusses a new South African politics, from the ground up. Astrid Haas explains why Africa’s smaller cities should not be overlooked.
Check out this cool special issue: Towards a global housing studies. Learn more about the shifts in the trend and nature of migration in the Ethiopia-South Africa migration corridor. Informal economy associations present research findings on youth employment and informality. Marco Di Nunzio’s article on evictions and development in Addis Ababa looks great. Get your copy of How the Other Half Lives: Interconnecting Socio-Spatial Inequalities. This is a cool article about how oral histories can help us better explain infrastructure development in cities like Kampala. Summer reading: The Blinded City: Ten Years in Inner-city Johannesburg. This looks fascinating: Commodified Cities: Urbanisation and Public Goods in Somalia.
Research corner
Make sure to get Zainab Usman’s Economic Diversification in Nigeria: The Politics of Building a Post-Oil Economy. Emmanuel Balogun discusses his new book Region Building in West Africa. This looks great: Markets of Civilization: Islam and Racial Capitalism in Algeria. I can’t wait to read John Parker’s In My Time of Dying: A History of Death and the Dead in West Africa. This is a nice review of Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò’s Against Decolonisation. And a review of the other Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò’s book: This is how the elite captured identity politics.
Justine Davis and Martha Wilfahrt discuss enumerator experiences in violent contexts. This special issue examines peacekeeping and policing in Ghana. Check out the Extraterritorial Voting Rights and Restrictions Dataset (EVRR). Tim Glawion explains cross-case patterns of security production in hybrid political orders. This article examines how Ghana’s ‘good governance’ electricity reform was overwhelmed by the politics of power crises. Check out Tom Pepinsky’s review essay on theory, comparison, and design.
African Politics Conference Group Awards
A big congratulations to Elizabeth Wellman for winning the Best Article Award for “Emigrant Inclusion in Home Country Elections: Theory and Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa,” and to Delanyo Kpo for winning the Lynne Rienner Best Dissertation Award for her dissertation “Returns on Repatriation: The Effects of Return Migration on Democratic Politics.”
Bridging the Research-Policy Divide
GLD recently held its Annual Conference, “Giving and Taking: Studies on Extraction and Participation in Local Development.” The conference shed light on how to improve citizen participation; build a social contract; hold leaders accountable, and; engage with policymakers and communities. We review some of the presentations and offer a few suggestions to bridge the research-policy divide in this Policy Brief.
The week in development
Our new GLD podcast asks: How do host states respond to refugees? What’s going on with vaccine manufacturing in Africa? Did transatlantic slavery and colonial borders wreck West African women’s movements? Will Ethiopia’s “economic miracle” get back on track?
Africa’s startups are showing economic resilience. Take a look at Energy Access Outlook 2022 (with some summary stats). Developing economies should think hard about taking on resource-backed loans. Somalia’s famine is a catastrophe. Patience Mususa explains the role of anthropologists in development.
Africa and the environment
Aby L. Sène explains the propaganda of biodiversity conservation. This effort tries to strengthen ties between protecting the environment and enhancing global security. Climate change calls us to rethink world history. Nigeria’s homes are vanishing into the sea. Half of South Africa’s sewage treatment are failing. Nelson Mandela Bay is running out of water. Tunisia’s beaches are closed due to plastic pollution. Lessons from Africa about climate resilience and fair energy transition. The lungs of humanity are under threat due to climate effects on Congo’s peat. Climate change could intensify violence against women. Following a logger’s journey on the Congo River.
Daily life
Meet the woman behind Ghana’s first skate park. Awesome: Nakasero Market in Kampala. And camels. Egyptian women do ride bikes. Ghana’s pan-African museum seeks to reclaim African history. Riding horses on Mozambique’s Bazaruto Archipelago. Google Translate takes on ten more African languages. Check out this short documentary about Indians in Nigeria. Yaoundé is beautiful.
And the NBA bets on Africa.
All the best,
Jeff and Phil