Africa Review 13/11

Dear reader,

Here are some reading suggestions from this past week. (Apologies for my lack of enthusiasm for COP27 — you will find only a couple of news pieces about it below.)

POLITICS

Post-Cotonou deal in danger as concerns grow over ratification delay. Who’s who in Putin’s Africa team? Upcoming webinar: Africa’s future depends on a reset of China-West relations. Mali’s women mediators shape local talks with terrorists. Somali clans are revolting against jihadists. OCCRP investigation: documents reveal Wagner’s golden ties to Sudanese Military Companies. Mauritania and Spain have signed an agreement on informal immigration. A Senegalese journalist has been arrested on national security charges. Africa’s maritime agency cannot be overlooked. More on Kagame’s “poison pen” operations. Nigeria’s electoral commission warns of violence. WestAfrica weekly documentary: Bola Ahmed Tinubu — from drug lord to presidential candidate.

A very good episode on Eritrea’s long bitter feud with Ethiopia’s Tigray. On similar topics and also very well explained, the África Agora podcast had an episode with Professor Alexandra Magnólia Dias (in Portuguese). And more on it on Hold your fire! The latest round of peace talks between Ethiopia’s government and representatives of the country’s Tigray region has been extended. Who can trust the Ethiopian peace deal?

ENVIRONMENT / AGRICULTURE

Here’s a map of African Climate Research Organisations. Nigeria’s young waste pickers are at risk. The droughts are killing elephants and other animals, in Kenya. Africa’s coffee beans: preserving crop’s genetic diversity is key to ensuring resilience over climate change. Green spaces help reduce crime in cities — evidence from South Africa. Climate change will force up to 113m people to relocate within Africa by 2050. South Africa’s brutal lion bone trade. Namibia-Botswana oil project being called a sin. Kenya is turning to GM crops to help with drought. No climate justice without human rights — in defence of Alaa Abd El-Fattah. Free them all.

ECONOMICS

Economic development is the only proven path to climate resilience. Mozambique ships gas to Europe for the first time. Ricardo Soares de Oliveira’s Researching Africa and the offshore world. Africa moves towards trade bloc with Caribbean. Angola: the end of Isabel dos Santos at Unitel — also in Portuguese.

OTHERS

On the engagement of the private sector to address complex societal and environmental challenges, check this human security business partnership framework. Uganda launched its first satellite into space. How the Nigeria of 2050 looks like to Nigerian students. Patriarchy in Kenya’s social justice movement. Airplane crash into Lake Victoria killed 19 people. Okai Ojeikere's work came up on my feed again recently — I’m hooked on it. Digital Benin project reunites bronzes looted by British soldiers. Book launch: African and Caribbean people in Britain. 

All for now. Until next Sunday.

Cat 🐕