Africa rising? A historical perspective
African demographic growth is expected to continue unabated over the next century. How should poverty reduction be addressed on the continent?
Politics
Has Africa’s May ’68 been forgotten?
In 1968, France witnessed an extraordinary student uprising which changed politics. Morocco and Senegal did too, but we seldom talk about it.
Two trips to Juba
Youth activism and the politics of violence in South Sudan.
Zimbabwean Twitter is shifting politics
Fasting and prayer don't determine election results; and two, social media has profoundly changed the political landscape.
Silent Aid
The time is ripe to ask not "does aid work," but "how does aid work?"
When Melania Trump went to Africa
Pith helmets and jodhpurs aside, Melania Trump went to four African countries to promote her "Be Best" education initiative. What's that about?
Nelson Mandela and US imperialism
In his writings and speeches, Nelson Mandela exposed the links between American power, capitalism and racism.
How to remember Jonas Savimbi
Sixteen years after the end of the Angolan civil war, the Angolan state considers how to properly remember and memorialize the leader of UNITA.
Limping towards irrelevance
How can South Africa's biggest trade union federation, Cosatu, remain relevant in the face of declining membership and a failing formal economy?
The outflow of the colonial past
What will it take to get Germany to own up fully to the atrocities it committed during the Genocide in Namibia?
Mutual Entanglements
The complex, and at times strained, relations between African-Americans and African immigrants in the United States.
Cobalt isn’t a conflict mineral
Policymakers need to properly assess the risks to ordinary Congolese people from expanding the “conflict minerals” category.
The post Trump fortunes of South Africa’s white nationalists
South Africa's white nationalists are finally in the spotlight, thanks to Donald Trump. Nobody likes what they see.
Public funds for private gain
The planned global Education Outcomes Fund—the UN seems onboard—would create markets for “non-state” providers while guaranteeing profits for private investors that purchase “impact bonds.”
Italian fascists quoting Samora Machel and Sankara
The use of Marxist-inspired arguments, often distorted, to support racist or nationalist political positions, is known as "rossobrunismo" (red-brownism) in Italy.
Kwame Nkrumah’s development state
Nkrumah's government was driven by large scale state development projects. They have a mixed legacy. Can Ghanaians “redeem” the fruits of his development visions?
The Ghetto President of Uganda
Bobi Wine, building off political protest of the last decade, has become a symbol for a new politics in Uganda.
Eddison Zvobgo and the struggle for Zimbabwe
Eddison Zvobgo was both implicated in and a critic of Mugabe's rule. He paid for it. His niece remembers him.
The contemporary state of Ethiopia
2018 witnessed a fundamental shift in how Ethiopia's ruling party governs. How did it come about, what is incomplete about this transition, and what happens next.
The now neglected history of Soviet anti-colonialism
A brief history of MN Roy, an Indian delegate to the Mexican Communist Party and how the Soviet Union came to support liberation efforts in colonized nations.