Global Eyes: Africa
The Afrolution weekly round-up
From Claire—I’ve been thinking that the “Africa” section of Global Eyes tends to be thin, but I haven’t been sure what to do about it. There’s very little coverage of Africa in the Anglophone media. So little that I’ve had trouble finding good stories to populate the section.
This seems to me a major problem, both for the Anglophone media and for Global Eyes. For reasons of demography alone, if you’re interested in global events, you’re of necessity interested in Africa, because Africa is humanity’s future: African fertility rates are the world’s highest, while fertility is cratering everywhere else. Africa’s population is now 1.3 billion; this is expected to double in 29 years. So by 2100, Nigeria’s population will be the size of India’s, now.
Africans, unlike the rest of the world, are young. According to the World Economic Forum, the average Indian is 29 years old. In China, he’s a mature 37. In the United States, he’s a sedate 38. In Europe, he’s a geriatric 44. The average African is 19 years old and the continent is getting younger, fast; by 2050, there will be more than a billion African children. With the rest of the world struggling even to reach the replacement rate, it’s very clear that Africa’s fate is synonymous with the human fate. Yet the reporting on Africa is so sparse that you’d never guess this from reading any major broadsheet.
Part of the problem, clearly, is that I just don’t know where to look. So we’ve asked our Cosmopolitan Globalist in Nigeria, Habib Abodunrin Zakari, to try his hand at an Africa roundup. He’s an Abuja-based reporter, translator, humanitarian aid worker, and teacher, and if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, you can reach him on LinkedIn.
Here’s his first go, and if you like it, we’ll ask him to do this every week.
We’ll leave the paywall off this time so that everyone has a chance to see it and decide whether they’d like to subscribe to see it again.
NIGERIA
EXPLAINER: Seven things you should know about last week’s council polls in Abuja. The February 12 Abuja area Council election was the first election to be conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission. This election is a test of the Commission’s ability to conduct an election smoothly before the 2023 general elections.
DMO auctions FGN bonds. The Nigerian Debt Management Office, known as the DMO, has auctioned two separate Federal Government of Nigeria bonds at N75 billion (USD$180 billion) each.
Representatives debate jail term, fine for politicians who use public funds for medical tourism:
A mild drama yesterday ensued at plenary in the House of Representatives during the debate on a bill seeking seven years jail term or a fine of N500 million (about US$1.2 million) or both for public officers who seek medical treatment abroad at public expense …
CENTRAL AFRICA
“How can you throw us back?” Three stories of asylum-seekers expelled by the US. Human Rights Watch reports on Cameroonians denied asylum and deported from the United States by the Trump administration, then detained and abused by Cameroonian authorities when they were forced to return home:
I was well beaten ... Every two days... they were using ropes, [rubber] tubes, their boots, military belts ... They hit me all over my body ... They said that I’ve destroyed the image of Cameroon, because my deportation [paper] shows that I had gone [to the US] ... so I had to pay for it. They were saying I might be cooperating with the Ambazonian guys [separatists militia] ... They asked if I’m working with them, I said no. They said I’m lying, that I went out there [to the US] to raise money for them ... I finally told them, '“ ... I asked for asylum, but I wasn't granted asylum.” ... They told me that since I have tarnished the image of the country, they will also destroy my own life.
EAST AFRICA
Malawi loses 30 percent of its electricity to tropical storm Ana. “The country’s only power generating company says it has lost about a third of its generating capacity to the storm. Meanwhile, the government has appealed to donors to contribute toward the cost of rehabilitating the station, which it says is beyond its financial capacity.”
NORTH AFRICA
German arms exports under scrutiny as Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock visits Egypt. Germany’s new coalition government is keen to curb arms exports to countries outside of the European Union and NATO, with Egypt at the top of that list. The foreign minister used her first official Middle East trip to speak about human rights and their influence on German weapons sales.
SAHEL
Mali’s Prime Minister accuses France of seeking to partition his country. Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maïga, who heads the government installed by Mali's military junta in June 2021, attacked France before a gathering of diplomats summoned to the Prime Minister’s office. He stopped short, however, of explicitly demanding the withdrawal of Operation Barkhane. France and its allies meanwhile accuse the junta of welcoming Russian mercenaries.
Mali expels French journalist. “A week after announcing it will become harder for foreign reporters to obtain press accreditation, the Malian authorities have expelled a French journalist within 24 hours of his arrival in the country. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the unprecedented expulsion and the use of an administrative pretext to prevent this journalist from working.”
SOUTHERN AFRICA
Zimbabwe: Teachers and government bicker over strike. The government threatened to fire teachers who failed to report for duty, triggering an angry backlash from union leaders. The unions are demanding raise equivalent to US$540 for the teachers—and some are demanding salaries be paid in dollars.
ZANU PF accused of forcing villagers to attend its meetings. A report from the Zimbabwe Peace Project points to Zanu PF as the leading perpetrator of violence in communities throughout Zimbabwe. Zanu PF has been the ruling party of Zimbabwe since independence in 1980.
WEST AFRICA
Senegal facility to begin Covid19 vaccine production. “The … pandemic has exposed stark vaccine inequities among high- and low-income nations and has underscored Africa’s dependence on outside countries for shots. A new initiative in Senegal, however, hopes to reduce that inequity and make the continent more vaccine self-sufficient.”
Seychelles and Mauritius extend terms for fishing. The two countries agreed to extend an existing bilateral fisheries agreement for 60 more days, giving them time to discuss a new agreement.
University strike in Ghana cripples study. The lecturers’ strike is now on its fifth week, threatening to shut down public universities. Lecturers are demanding higher salaries as well as a raise in book and research allowances. Thousands of local and international students have been stranded.
CENTRAL AFRICA
Central African prime minister sacked. The prime minister was ousted amid tensions between pro-Russia and pro-France factions in the government. Henri-Marie Dondra was named prime minister in June 2021, just after Paris froze budgetary aid to Bangui and accused it of participating in a Russian disinformation campaign against France. He’s been replaced by his economy minister, Felix Molou.
Cameroon culls birds, erects barriers against bird flu outbreak. “Cameroonian authorities have erected sanitary barriers around poultry farms in the western city of Bafoussam after an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu. Authorities say a ‘huge’ number of birds have died while farmers say they've been forced to cull thousands of chickens.”
EAST AFRICA
Putsches taint African Union’s plans to “Silence the Guns.” African heads of state gathered at the headquarters of the African Union for a two-day summit to focus on resolving the conflicts proliferating across the continent. The theme of the summit was “Silencing the Guns,” but AU officials were well aware of their failure to achieve the goal, adopted in 2013, of ending “all wars in Africa by 2020.”
No perfect solution: Agricultural and environmental scientist urges East Africa’s smallholder farmers to use both traditional and new practices.
Supporters of agroecology who strongly oppose new inventions are sincere in their beliefs that they are advocating for the interests of Africa’s farmers and the preservation of vulnerable ecosystems. Unfortunately, if successful, such hardline positions will narrow the options available in ways that will be harmful to both.
“We birthed triplets while Tropical Storm Ana was ripping away the roof,” says nurse. Tropical Storm Ana made landfall in Angoche district of Mozambique, causing flooding and severe damage to public infrastructure and homes.
NORTH AFRICA
Algerian President offers condolences to families of slain soldiers. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune wrote to the families of the soldiers, who were killed in a clash with terrorists on the border strip in the region of Hassi Tirinine.
Morocco’s hold over Western Sahara is a grip on global food production:
If you add up the phosphate reserves in [Western Sahara] it amounts to 72 percent of the entire phosphate reserves in the world. Phosphate, along with nitrogen, makes synthetic fertilizer, a key element in modern food production. … There is no doubt that the occupation of Western Sahara is not merely about national pride, but it is also largely about the presence of a vast number of resources—especially phosphates—that can be found in the territory,
Meanwhile …
US says Putin flat-out lying about pulling troops from Ukraine.
US, NATO says Russia adding more troops near Ukraine border
And in other news …
US government wants to release US$3.5 billion of Afghanistan’s central bank’s frozen funds. Afghans say the decision does more harm than good.
Fanning the Flames. Arun Kapil on Éric Zemmour, the new force on the French right. A great piece.
Map of the day
The pieces on Africa are so valuable. Please continue this coverage! Each piece needed one more sentence for context. For example, in Algeria we need to know where "the border" near "Hassi Tirinine" is. It's the border with Niger in the far south. Why are Algerian soldiers being killed there?!
Thank you, Habib, for the great update on Africa! And thank you, Claire, for having the podcast uploaded to your RSS feed! It was great to hear from Olga and Vlad, and conveniently to boot!