How to think about Ethiopian politics today
Social science and the ghosts of “the nationalities question” in Ethiopia today.
Politics
Congo’s white refugees
After the fall of colonial rule, some whites fled from their African countries of residence and sought refuge in apartheid South Africa.
The price of contamination
Legal cases against foreign multinationals in the Central African Copperbelt seek justice for decades of pollution. But activists should also investigate the historical legacies of colonial mining companies.
Ethiopia’s war of narratives
The current political conflict, now a civil war, in Ethiopia partly has its roots in disagreement among elites on how to narrativize Ethiopian history.
From the Niger to the Nile
In the late 1890s and early 1900s, a number of West African Muslims migrated east, settling in Sudan and Mecca, to seek refuge from European colonization.
Nonviolent guerrilla cartographers
During the Sudanese uprising, Khartoum became a carefully re-mapped city where only the revolutionaries knew its paths.
Study notes on Nigeria’s youth revolt
Was the #EndSARS protests a victory or a defeat for the country's popular masses?
Oil and Angola’s ‘crusade’ against corruption
Angolan political authorities are not particularly interested in justice or tackling corruption. It is more about settling scores.
Preparing for the long struggle ahead
COVID-19 has been a blessing to the ruling classes in Algeria. However, the popular Hirak movement has not said its last word yet.
Gambia’s truth commission
As some Gambians speak before the country's TRC, the testimonies create a space for their compatriots to express ideas about rights, dignity and social values.
Passing as a refugee
Borders and camps across Africa are using biometrics to track refugees. For those who are stateless, “fraud” can allow for the smuggling of truths into administrative lies.
Hustler mentality
Kenya's Deputy President, William Ruto, wants to be president. He projects himself as a go-getter. But there is a more sinister story behind his hustler narrative.
A cycle of diminishing expectations
South Africans are learning the hard way that corruption cannot simply be solved through technical fixes and increasing “accountability” through locking the villains up.
The Jacinda Ardern model
New Zealand's Prime Minister is a very nice centrist. People in the rest of the world, including Africans, calling for her to be emulated should be careful what they wish for.
Nigeria’s movement against brutality and poverty
The background to the #EndSARS protests and celebrating a movement that challenges Nigeria’s ruling class.
When Americans took a global health crisis seriously
Recalling its Ebola hysteria would help the US better confront COVID-19.
Africa’s forgotten refugee convention
In 1969, the OAU proposed its own refugee convention to reflect African values. Why did it not become policy across the continent?
Energy transitions and colonialism
Any talk about green transition and sustainability must not become a shiny façade for neocolonial schemes of plunder and domination—a view from North Africa.
Blackness in Amsterdam
At the largest gathering of black people he had ever seen together in Amsterdam, the author, originally from Kenya, wonder why they knew so little of each other.