Progress is exhausting
Pedro Pinho’s latest film follows a Portuguese engineer in Guinea-Bissau, exposing how empire survives through bureaucracy, intimacy, and the language of “development.”
development
Betraying Abuja’s green soul
The Federal Capital Territory’s green belts were designed as flood buffers and cooling lungs. But under its current leadership, they are becoming patronage spoils.
Grounded expectations
The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations marks a transition period for the Nigerian men's national team. This could be good for them (and the nation).
The Senegalese paradox
How Senegal rose to become one of the most fertile grounds in African football, and why this success still struggles to transform the local football economy.
Le paradoxe sénégalais
Comment le Sénégal est-il devenu l'un des viviers les plus prolifiques du football africain, et pourquoi ce succès peine-t-il encore à transformer l'économie du football local.
The people want to breathe
In Tunisia’s coastal city of Gabès, residents live in the shadow of the phosphate industry. As pollution deepens and repression returns, a new generation revives the struggle for life itself.
Goodbye, Piassa
The demolition of an historic district in Addis Ababa shows a central contradiction of modernization: the desire to improve the country while devaluing its people and culture.
The league of nations
If South Africa’s Premier Soccer league matters, it is because it’s the country’s most successful pan-Africanist project.
Nigeria’s elephants in the room
For Nigeria to return to the peak of African football, it needs deeper introspection about how the country functions today.
Reading List: Luke Sinwell
Once associated with socialism, the language of participation has been co-opted. How was this radical idea depoliticized?
The dust, towers and false promises of modern Ethiopia
Successive Ethiopian governments have continued a 'modernizing' project that not only offers people false dreams, but actively dislocates them from the things that gave them purpose in the past.
Why Africa should look East
The former executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission on Africa, makes his case as to why Africa should take advice on development politics and knowledge from Asia.
It could happen to us
Climate negotiations have repeatedly floundered on the unwillingness of rich countries, but let's hope their own increasing vulnerability instills greater solidarity.
Sankara is not dead
Thomas Sankara has emerged as both a lesson on the uncertainties of revolutionary change and the possibilities for people-centered development for the present and future.
The business of Black death
The global public health industry is complicit in the reproduction of “the African tragedy.”
The missing 27 billion
Governments need funds for stimulus packages and aid to address COVID-19. But corporate tax avoidance and tax breaks for aid in African countries is undermining emergency responses.
Can a virus accelerate change in Africa?
African intellectuals are calling for a different discussion. Isn’t this the right time to propel changes that have often been postponed?
This is my country
The Liberian academic and writer talks about citizenship, belonging, and what unites her fragmented nation.
The irrelevance of NGOs in Tanzania
NGOs have been notably absent in the fight against COVID-19, despite claims they exist solely to ensure accountability and transparency by government.
What kind of ancestor do you want to become?
Medical anthropologist Julie Livingston argues that the conditions of capitalist modernity in which we live are not sustainable and are leading to increased rather than lessened inequality.