Africa Update Vol. 13
Welcome to the latest edition of Africa Update! We've got Somalia's complicated foreign policy, new insurance against Ebola in Uganda, archival photos from Mali, the launch of Scientific African magazine, and more.
West Africa: In Mauritania, prolonged drought is leading to changes in gender relations as male pastoralists are forced to spend increasing amounts of time away from home searching for water for livestock. Senegal has fought the spread of HIV by giving sex workers improved access to healthcare. Life in the Malian army sounds miserable, with bribes required to get in, and low pay and terrible conditions for enlisted soldiers.
If you haven't seen Seydou Keïta's photos from Mali in the 1950s, you're missing out
Central Africa: Rebels in the Central African Republic are imposing taxes and providing security for some citizens, but won't provide any other social services. In Rwanda, a new daycare program helps female traders who had previously been forced to leave small children alone when they crossed the border into Congo for work, as they were unable to afford the transit pass for a child. The new Kivu Security project is doing important work in mapping conflict in eastern DRC in real time.
A truly impressive amount of research from the Pulitzer Center went into the creation of this map of DRC president Joseph Kabila's business interests (via Africa Is A Country)
East Africa: Somali architecture students are digitally preserving buildings which were damaged by the country's longrunning civil war. This was an insightful article on the complicated geopolitics of Somalia's foreign policy, which sees the country balancing between the competing interests of Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Tanzania has levied a new fee of US$900 on bloggers, which is equivalent to asking an American to pay US$60,000 for a blog. Wanjiku Kanjumba is studying to be Kenya's first astronaut. This was a saddening story about the difficulties of filing medical malpractice suits in Kenya.
Incredible example of environmental storytelling in this photo from Allen Ssenyonga
Public health: Guinea and Uganda are piloting a new insurance product against outbreaks of infectious diseases such as Ebola. South Sudan has successfully halted the spread of guinea worm. The vast majority of people killed in traffic accidents in Kenya are pedestrians. This was a gripping story about how a group of Liberian journalists published a story which led to a ban on female genital cutting in the country.
Politics + economics: Don't miss the Carnegie Corporation's new podcast of interviews with African scholars of peacebuilding. Deborah Brautigam and Ken Opalo make an informed argument that China's investment in Africa is much more useful than many Western pundits like to believe. African countries have been working on integrating their air travel markets for nearly 40 years, but still only four countries offer direct flights to more than 20 other states in the region. Subsidies for EU dairy farmers are increasing exports of cheap milk powder to West Africa, undercutting local milk producers in the region.
Somali Open Data shared this map of the 223 NGOs and UN agencies working in Somalia
Gender: Nanjala Nyabola writes that "African women political leaders are often held to higher standards than their male counterparts, and ... much more work can be done to incorporate women into political governance on the continent." This can be seen clearly in Somalia, where the law calls for 30% of MPs to be women, but provides little legal recourse if the actual numbers fall short. Two new reports find that women in Africa are disproportionately likely to be harmed by urban disasters, such as landfill collapses, and often receive only a fraction of the compensation that men get when their land is purchased for commercial development.
Academia: The Next Einstein Forum is working to raise the profiles of African scientists by launching a new journal called Scientific African. My Mawazo Institute co-founder Rose Mutiso shared her thoughts on the importance of the launch with CBC. In more Mawazo news, we've just brought on our first PhD Scholar cohort of 10 women studying in universities around Kenya! If you know any African women who'd like to pursue an MA or PhD in STEM, they should apply for the African Union's Mwalimu Nyerere Scholarship Scheme.
Wisdom of the day, from Njoki Ngumi via Nanjala Nyabola
Twitter: Interesting people I've followed recently include Farida Nabourema (Togo), Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu (Ghana), Samantha Maina (Kenya), Ngala Choma (Kenya), Jackie Owigo (Kenya), Petina Gappah (Zimbabwe), and Lebo Diseko (South Africa).
Cheers,
Rachel