Welcome to the latest edition of Africa Update! We’ve got the competitive rollerbladers of eastern DRC, the Nairobi governor’s prison break, African women on boards, the health threats of kids’ facepaint in Uganda, and more.
West Africa: This was a wild story about a Nigerian sailor who got hijacked by pirates, forced to work for them, and then arrested for piracy himself. Older Nigerians find WhatsApp easier to use than other social media or internet platforms, but it also leaves them less able to check on false news before spreading it. The Senegal-Mali railway line has slowly been falling into ruin, with workers showing up though they haven’t been paid for nearly a year. An ECOWAS court has ruled that Sierra Leone must stop kicking pregnant students out of school.
Central Africa: Meet the competitive rollerbladers of eastern DRC. In Burundi, the president continues to consolidate his power and crack down on civic space. Qatar Airways has acquired a 60% stake in Rwanda’s planned new international airport. Agro-processing accounts for almost 70% of Uganda’s manufacturing sector, but many factories are still sitting idle.
East Africa: This piece debunks a lot of harmful stereotypes about northern Kenya. The leading Janjaweed commander in Sudan exported almost a ton of gold to Dubai in a single month in 2018. South Sudan has stopped paying civil servants but is still spending lavishly on the military and perks for MPs. Here’s some useful background on ethnic politics in Ethiopia. Somalia’s president is stacking the deck to get re-elected in 2020.
Governance in Kenya: The Kenyan Red Cross collected almost US$10 million after a 2011 famine, but a new investigation shows that most of the money never reached the victims. The governor of Nairobi is in trouble for failing to disclose that he escaped from prison in 1998. Kenya may be losing up to 1/3 of its national budget to corruption every year.
Southern Africa: In South Africa, climate change protests often discuss environmentalism as an individual responsibility rather than a need to rethink the structure of the economy. Private CCTV networks are creating a new type of racial apartheid in South Africa. This was an insightful illustrated guide to Zimbabwe’s ongoing currency crisis. In Mozambique, kids as young as four are forced to mine mica, which is used in electronics and makeup.
Human rights: A militia leader in eastern DRC was convicted of war crimes less than two years after they occurred, in an unusually rapid turnaround for the Congolese courts. On Congo’s palm oil plantations, workers are consistently being exposed to toxic chemicals. Who is policing the police in Kenya?
Politics + economics: Here’s an insightful overview of the state of judicial systems in West Africa. I’m looking forward to reading this new book on the politics of social protection in Eastern and Southern Africa. A new study shows that giving cash transfers to families in Kenya is very good for the local economy and doesn’t lead to inflation. Tullow Oil has seen its stock price crash after problems with its oil investments in Ghana, Kenya and Uganda. Jumia has pulled out of Tanzania, Cameroon and Rwanda in the last few weeks.
Environment: In northern Uganda, conflict is leading to deforestation. But are movements to plant more trees in Africa to fight climate change just a new kind of colonialism? In Ghana, fisheries observers are facing threats for reporting illegal fishing by Chinese trawlers. Read about how four African mega-cities are adapting to climate change.
Health: Most African countries still haven’t banned lead paint, leading to concerns that kids are being exposed at home and via facepainting. Burkina Faso has a controversial new plan to wipe out malaria by sterilizing mosquitos. In Zimbabwe, doctors are striking over missing medical supplies and inflation which has wiped out their salaries. Millions of unsafe abortions are performed annually in Nigeria, where the procedure is illegal in most circumstances.
Gender: TheBoardroom Africa is connecting African women with corporate and non-profit board positions. Kenya’s national homicide data doesn’t list the gender of victims, but one MA student is working to change that. Many African countries have laws which protect women and children, but don’t address the specific risks faced by young girls. These were moving ethnographic interviews with women doing sex work in Uganda.
Education: Check out this review of research on African education by scholars based in Africa. A Nigerian effort to make Igbo an official language of instruction is running into opposition from parents and students, who feel that English and Pidgin are better languages for business.
Research roundup: The latest round of Afrobarometer data is out, for all your opinion polling needs. The British Journal of Political Science has ungated a selection of articles on African politics until the end of December 2019. The Africa Science Desk has an open call for scientific journalism. What does impact evaluation capacity look like across Africa? I agree that the African Studies Association of Africa should get to be the main “African Studies Association,” and the existing ASA should be renamed “African Studies Association of America”!
Art + literature: Did you know that Nando’s is the biggest collector of South African art? Here’s a great interview with the founder of Bakwa, Cameroon’s first literary magazine. The Nigerian publisher Cassava Republic has a new grant for publishing in local African languages. Read about the history of Hausa feminist literature in Nigeria. Nairobi has a vibrant literary house party scene. Check out this open access sound archive of Nairobi.