Africa Day, and the Measure of a Continent

The farce lies in the performance of Pan-Africanism without power. It lies in institutions that speak of unity while African economies remain exposed to rating agencies, foreign currencies, creditor punishments and donor instructions. It lies in regional bodies that discipline disobedient states while tolerating client regimes that sell their people into permanent dependency

Until the AU can fund a much greater share of its own agenda and use Africa’s financial institutions more strategically, its agency will remain constrained

as we celebrate the Africa Day, it’s high time to practically reimagine Chiekh Anta Diop’s concept ‘African renaissance’ as the world gradually restructures into a new world order.

The same property in different cities will give you different outcomes. Here’s what to consider:

The demographic case is equally striking. More than 60% of Africans are under 25. By 2050, one in three people aged 15 to 24 anywhere on Earth will be African. A continent this young is not a problem to be managed. It is a generation to be partnered with

The French president’s visit to Nairobi was a spectacular flop that exposed the tension between African agency and Western entitlement

Africa Day is generally marked as a day for celebration, a day to rejoice at the steps taken by previous generations to fight against and eliminate the effects of colonialism, slavery, land dispossession and to chart a new course for a prosperous Africa.

Liberal democracy contains a structural problem that its defenders rarely acknowledge. It is a procedural system for organising competition. It legitimises decision-making through votes, allocates power through representation and constrains its exercise through institutions

The three Sahelian countries — Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger — which have experienced military coups, have not been able to contain the growing episodes of terrorism they have experienced for many year

Twenty-five years after Nepad, there is an urgency to act on what its founding fathers envisaged for the continent’s renewal

SA citizens are not xenophobic for demanding lawful migration, secure borders and fair access to limited opportunities

Budgets are rewritten in Washington and Brussels rather than in Harare, Accra or Nairobi