The donor-driven gender strategy is failing. Its jargon is ambiguous and easily misunderstood and it fosters inaction on the part of patriarchal African governments.
Thrillers offer complex insights into how authors and readers may understand the present, and imagine the future. This is seldom recognised by journalists, academics and other commentators.
Sierra Leone is acclaimed as one of Africa’s most successful post-conflict states. But the country remains fragile. Support for political parties is polarised on ethnic and regional lines, and underwritten by patronage. Youth unemployment is endemic.
While President Paul Kagame’s leadership of Rwanda has been championed as “visionary”, President Isaias Afwerki is accused of transforming Eritrea into a rogue, pariah state. Popular perceptions of these comparable countries have been simplistic – and polarised.
The history of Zimbabwe has been revised in the service of the governing ZANU-PF party. A ‘patriotic’ version of history, disseminated by public intellectuals and state media, has distorted legitimate grievances. Critics of patriotic history, including opposition politicians,...
Multilateral systems to support peace and democracy have evolved faster in Africa than in other regions. In the past decade, diplomatic and military intervention in Africa has become more frequent and more assertive than in Latin America, Asia or the Middle East. Africa’s...
Coalition government in the UK is an opportunity to revise policy on Africa. More aid to Africa is touted as proof of politicians’ compassion and conscience. But an emerging cross-party consensus has ignored significant policy failures. Democracy, trade, technology and regional...
In the heyday of African nationalism, the continent’s founding fathers plotted their vision of pan-African unity. The twin paths of closer political and economic integration appeared to them as the only means to achieve dignity prosperity and security. Today, closer...
