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An African Manual For Debugging Empire

V9 N3An African Manual For Debugging EmpireEditor's Foreword • Wale Lawal

An African Manual for Debugging Empire confronts the erasure of Africans in global tech debates and highlights the ways the continent is actively shaping, contesting and redefining the futures of AI.

An African Manual for Debugging Empire

An African Manual for Debugging Empire

Wale LawalAugust 24, 2025

Our latest issue, An African Manual for Debugging Empire , confronts the erasure of Africans in global tech debates and highlights the ways the continent is actively shaping, contesting and redefining the futures of AI.

Science & Technology

Africa’s Role in the Future of Artificial Intelligence

Africa’s Role in the Future of Artificial Intelligence

Dawn Chinagorom-AbiakalamAugust 24, 2025

As artificial intelligence transforms global systems, Africa remains sidelined in its design; even as its labour and resources power the very infrastructure that makes AI possible.

Saving Nigeria, the Piggyvest Way

Saving Nigeria, the Piggyvest Way

Oyindamola Depo-OyedokunAugust 24, 2025

In today’s digital age, history-making lightbulb moments don’t always strike in boardrooms or after soul-searching mountain hikes. Sometimes, they unfold casually on the X timeline.

The Geopolitics of Digital Technology in Africa

The Geopolitics of Digital Technology in Africa

Otobong IniekeAugust 24, 2025

As the world leans into the fourth industrial revolution, Africa has become a frontier for the geopolitical power play of China and the United States. Amid this, African governments must take control of their digital development or end up as pawns, again.

Science & Technology

‘Who Do We Imagine AI Is Built By and Built For?’

‘Who Do We Imagine AI Is Built By and Built For?’

Wale LawalAugust 24, 2025

With AI proponents promising to ‘save’ Africa, Nanjala Nyabola asks an urgent question: what happens when a continent’s future is outsourced to someone else’s imagination?

Science & Technology

To-Do List

To-Do List

Nelson Chukwu JohnAugust 24, 2025

‘I woke up one day and I realized that I simply despised the smallness that life here hoists on everyone. Small loves, big needs met by small resources, small hopes quashed by gigantic misdeeds, small joys flickering off with each new leaving.’

Culture & Society

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Mgbeojikwe

Mgbeojikwe

Ani Kayode SomtochukwuAugust 24, 2025

‘Jikwe, why did you not marry?’ Okenwa asks, his gaze holding Mgbeojikwe’s. ‘What were you thinking?’ … ‘I could have married you,’ he says, adjusting in his seat, ‘In a different world.

Culture & Society

The Absence of Stains

The Absence of Stains

Yasmine ZohdiAugust 24, 2025

‘Mariam doesn’t know whether Dina’s a virgin, but if she were in her place, she now thinks—under the threat of her family finding out that she wasn’t—she would say she had been raped. To them, that would be better than knowing she had sinned willingly.

Culture & Society

Is Rejecting AI Art Becoming a Conservative Position?

Is Rejecting AI Art Becoming a Conservative Position?

Boluwatife OyediranAugust 24, 2025

The growth of generative AI has led to debates about its acceptability in art and whether artists are being conservative for rejecting its use.

Culture & Society

Who Will Own and Control Africa’s AI Energy Future?

Who Will Own and Control Africa’s AI Energy Future?

Imad MusaAugust 24, 2025

As Africa races to power its digital future with Chinese solar panels and AI-ready data centres, it risks becoming both the supplier of critical minerals and the dumping ground for toxic waste in a new form of green extractivism, wrapped in the language of digital and climate progress.

‘Don’t Give Up on the Story You Want to Tell’

‘Don’t Give Up on the Story You Want to Tell’

Laila LalamiAugust 24, 2025

Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Dream Hotel, Laila Lalami, is fascinated by the extractive power of technology: ‘Techno-capitalism has infiltrated our lives to such an extent that our only real break from it comes when we sleep.

Wi-Fi Warriors and Homeland Dreams

Wi-Fi Warriors and Homeland Dreams

Maggie LoWillaAugust 24, 2025

In a country failed by peace agreements, connection didn’t disappear—it went online. South Sudan’s digital diaspora challenges the glossy myths of Silicon Valley and insists that innovation thrives not only in wealth and infrastructure, but in resilience, memory, and connection across borders.

Politics & Security

Angola’s ‘Inorganic’ Techno-Democracy

Angola’s ‘Inorganic’ Techno-Democracy

Rui VerdeAugust 24, 2025

In Angola, the intersection of technology and governance is forging an unconventional democratic landscape—one that emerges spontaneously and outside traditional political structures.

Politics & Security

The Dark Matter of Genetics

The Dark Matter of Genetics

Moboluwajidide JosephAugust 24, 2025

From his mother’s community chemist shop in Enugu to a Toronto lab, Nigerian pharmacist Chukwunonso Nwabufo is building a device that could save lives by revealing how your genes respond to drugs, but his real revolution may be redefining what is ‘rare’ in medical research.

Science & Technology

Africa’s AI Path to Health Impact

Africa’s AI Path to Health Impact

Ebele MọgọAugust 24, 2025

AI is opening the door to health systems that can learn, adapt and act. Can Africa harness it to leap ahead?

Science & Technology

How Technology Preserves the Legacy of Colonialism Across Africa

How Technology Preserves the Legacy of Colonialism Across Africa

Elias GbadamosiAugust 24, 2025

The parallels between colonialism and bias in modern technology offer an instructive analysis that reveals how contemporary digital infrastructures perpetuate colonial power even as they claim to connect the world and advance social justice issues.

International Affairs

An African Manual For Debugging Empire | The Republic