Opinion

© File photo of pylons that carry electricity from a coal fired power station in Hwange, Zimbabwe. (REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo)

unenlightened

Premium badgeSouth Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe: Blackouts to total darkness? To observers, it’s incomprehensible that countries with active perennial waterways – via Zambezi River – teeter on the verge of energy poverty.
© By Damien Glez

pulling all stops

Zimbabwe: A strategic presidential pardon? With less than three months left to the general elections, Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has decided to grant clemency to nearly one-fifth o...
© Members of the Ethiopian diaspora, the largest outside of Ethiopia in Washington, U.S., July 28, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Theiler

People power

America’s African diaspora: An unmatched advantage in the soft power competition for influence The soft power competition for political and business influence in Africa has never been so fierce.
© Journalist Ralikonelo “Leqhashasha” Joki was gunned down on 15 May (photo: facebook)

cover up

Africa: The terrible power of political assassinations On Monday 15 May, the people of Lesotho woke to the news that one of the country’s most prominent journalists had been gunned down the night before. R...

Opinion top stories

President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of China Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pose during the 2023 BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, 23 August, 2023. (Gianluigi Guercia/Pool)

Group cheer

Premium badgeBRICS: Southern Africa’s unprecedented eco-political ‘Kodak moment’ For the region, the BRICS summit in Johannesburg could prove as tectonic as Zimbabwe’s hosting of the 8th Non-Aligned Conference in 1986 and South Afr...
Flags of South Africa, Brazil, Russia, India and China at the 2023 BRICS Summit at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg on 24 August 2023. (AFP/Marco Longari)

negatory

Premium badgeThe BRICS expands and Nigeria is not on the list While Egypt and Ethiopia were welcomed into the exclusive club of nations destined to dominate the world economy by 2050, Nigeria was left out. Why be...
Yevgeny Prigozhin, 25 May 2023. (AFP/Concord Group)

What’s next?

Premium badgeThe myth of Wagner in Africa Following the Wagner mutiny that shook President Vladimir Putin in June, and the recent coup in Niger, speculation about the activities of the private...

Opinion top stories

President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of China Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pose during the 2023 BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, 23 August, 2023. (Gianluigi Guercia/Pool)

Group cheer

Premium badgeBRICS: Southern Africa’s unprecedented eco-political ‘Kodak moment’ For the region, the BRICS summit in Johannesburg could prove as tectonic as Zimbabwe’s hosting of the 8th Non-Aligned Conference in 1986 and South Afr...
Flags of South Africa, Brazil, Russia, India and China at the 2023 BRICS Summit at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg on 24 August 2023. (AFP/Marco Longari)

negatory

Premium badgeThe BRICS expands and Nigeria is not on the list While Egypt and Ethiopia were welcomed into the exclusive club of nations destined to dominate the world economy by 2050, Nigeria was left out. Why be...
Yevgeny Prigozhin, 25 May 2023. (AFP/Concord Group)

What’s next?

Premium badgeThe myth of Wagner in Africa Following the Wagner mutiny that shook President Vladimir Putin in June, and the recent coup in Niger, speculation about the activities of the private...

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© Scouts in Durban, south Africa learn about renewable energy and solar panels. REUTERS/Rogan Ward

Justice or hypocrisy?

Charting the way toward a just energy transition  Humanity is at a crossroads — a moment of great risk and great opportunity. In 2010, wealthy nations acknowledged their dominant role in historic and ...

Alawite legacy

Premium badgeMorocco: The monarchy and the mystery of Moulay El Hassan What do we know about the Crown Prince, who turned 20 on 8 May? Apart from a few general facts about his education at the Royal College and  at the UM...
© By Damien Glez

10 years on

Sarkozy on trial for alleged Libyan financing of his 2007 campaign? While investigators have completed their inquiry into suspicions of Libyan financing of Nicolas Sarkozy’s first presidential campaign, the National Fi...

Not again

Is Mali the French version of Afghanistan (with some caveats)? Many are wondering whether French President Emmanuel Macron’s entanglement in the Sahel is analogous to the troubles that foreign powers have faced in...
© A worker walks past a dome holding liquefied natural gas, on the vessel KARMOL LNGT Powership Asia, one of 37 floating storage and regasification units (FSRU) in the world, as it docks at the Cape Town port en route to Brazil, in Cape Town, South Africa, April 19, 2022. REUTERS/Shelley Christians

the upper hand

Negotiating the century: Why Africa must demand better contracts The contracts that Africa concludes in the coming months could impact its entire century.
© A Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), logo is seen outside the Kencom branch in Nairobi, Kenya July 10, 2018. Picture taken July 10, 2018. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya

too big to fail

Kenya: Is it time to declare KCB and Equity as systemically important banks? Both KCB Group and Equity Group Holdings have ramped up their pan-African ambitions with DRC being the latest addition into both banks’ geographical f...