Thought Leader

PAP, Traoré and the farce of Pan-Africanism without power

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

Africa has a gift the world still needs

Africa has a gift the world still needs

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

Kenya hosts neocolonial delusion

Kenya hosts neocolonial delusion

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

Have African leaders betrayed  the dream of 1963?

Have African leaders betrayed  the dream of 1963?

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.

Africa–Asia development divergence

Africa–Asia development divergence

What has prevented most African countries from performing as well as Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam in economic modernisation is connected with the continent’s ‘soft Westernisation’, focused mainly on appearance

Engineering underdevelopment

Engineering underdevelopment

Nations that escaped colonial domination find themselves surrendering economic sovereignty to creditors, ratings agencies and technocrats miles away. This is remote-controlled neocolonialism without the geography

Use BEE to resource civil society

Use BEE to resource civil society

The policy must be remodelled to become broad-based, helping make community organisations and social enterprises its core beneficiaries rather than political elites and their connections