Conversation in Transit
‘When I boarded the Uber, my driver immediately identified me as African—specifically Nigerian. “You know, we know ourselves. We can tell when we see each other that we are from the same Africa,” he said.’ Read More...
The Artist Who Terrified the Nigerian State
In 2015, when a steel bus Sokari Douglas Camp built to honour Ken Saro-Wiwa arrived in Nigeria, she didn’t expect the Nigerian state to arrest it. Ten years on with the bus still detained, the fearless sculptor reveals how one artwork shook the government and why memory, once forged in metal, can never be silenced. Read More...
The Economic Uncertainties of the AfCFTA Amidst Regional Conflict
The AfCFTA’s potential to transform intra-African trade risks being undermined by the volatility created by instability in the Sahel and Great Lakes regions. Read More...
Is China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Africa a Development Catalyst or Debt Trap?
As China’s Belt and Road Initiative is reshaping Africa’s economic landscape, opportunities in infrastructure development clash against rising debt, raising questions of sovereignty and long-term sustainability. Read More...
The Gendered Blindspots of Climate Policies
Gender alone does not determine climate vulnerability, and an intersectional approach that accounts for class, economic status and sociocultural norms must be brought into climate policies to move beyond representation towards meaningful empowerment. Read More...
‘Translation Is Where All Languages Meet’ Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ’s First Draft
Kenyan writer and author of Unbury Our Dead with Song, Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ, does not believe in the idea of a ‘great African novel’: ‘I do not think there is such a thing as the “great African novel”—or the “great Russian” or “European” novel—nor do I believe in the idea of major and minor literatures. We simply do not know enough and have not read widely enough to make such judgements. The idea of major and minor literatures is manufactured for us.’ Read More...
A Feminist Pan-Africanism for a World in Flux
As the impacts of recent events in global politics continue to reverberate, business as usual for Africa is impossible. A radical new vision is needed and possible. Feminist pan-Africanism is not just an internal reform of pan-African ideals; it is a necessary reorientation of Africa’s role in the world, one that centres justice, accountability, and people’s power as the foundation for genuine sovereignty. Read More...
Naledi Pandor’s Feminist Reimagining of Africa’s Global Engagement
Global politics has often been framed as the ‘business of men’. Yet, Dr Naledi Pandor’s leadership disorders colonial patriarchal expectations of who does politics and how politics is done. In advocating for social justice, equity and self-determination, Dr Pandor demonstrates that politics need not be predatory and exploitative. Read More...
The Timeless Solutions of the Gadaa System
The Gadaa system of the Oromo people of Kenya and Ethiopia offers an indigenous method of governance in Africa, as the adopted Western democracy seems to be failing the continent. Read More...
Algeria’s Golden Opportunity
Africa’s largest country, Algeria, has a sizeable record of global mediation, spanning the Iran-Iraq conflict in 1975 to the Ethiopia-Eritrea conflict in 2000. Algeria’s evolving diplomacy raises questions on how it balances its revolutionary roots with pragmatic politics. Read More...
