Africa Update Vol. 33
Happy 2021, everyone! Africa Update is coming out of its long pandemic hibernation with our latest edition. We've got new Burundian airlines, election updates from Uganda, Nairobi's military power shift, histories of women's activism in Nigeria, and more.
West Africa: In Senegal, the pandemic has led to a drop in the number of people visiting sex workers -- but also means that those who do pay for sex are less likely to use condoms. Nigeria has ratified the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement even as it keeps all its land borders closed to trade to promote domestic rice production. However, domestic production is down, as pandemic travel restrictions and floods have hit Nigerian farmers hard.
Sunrise over Togo, via James Hall
Central Africa: New research explores how machinery rental keeps tiny businesses running in Uganda. If you've got $140,000 going spare, you can afford the average cost of a Ugandan Parliamentary campaign. This is an interesting report about informal taxation and money transfers between households in Rwanda. Burundian refugees who've fled to Tanzania are being tracked down and tortured by Tanzanian police working with the armed wing of the ruling party in Burundi. Burundi is also re-launching its national airline, despite a competitive regional environment and limited domestic demand.
Ugandan elections 2021: In the run-up to elections on January 14, the Ugandan government has cracked down on civic space in many ways. The most obvious has been serious police violence against civilians, with at least 45 people killed during protests in November. They have also arrested leading opposition candidates and human rights advocates, halted campaigning early over ostensible pandemic concerns, and frozen the bank accounts of several NGOs which were seen as friendly to the opposition. It's all part of a strategy to try to hobble the opposition without letting abuses reach a scale which would lead aid donors to withdraw funding.
The Mathare Roots Initiative has created this mural to honor eight year-old Yasin Juma, who was killed by the police in Nairobi earlier this year (via @DefendersKE)
East Africa: This was a moving portrait of women looking for work in Nairobi during the pandemic. Fewer than 20% of Nairobi residents have received any pandemic cash aid from the government or NGOs. "As Kenya reels from the coronavirus pandemic, a shift in power is underway in Nairobi, with municipal duties being transferred from elected public officials into the hands of military men." Ethiopians don't eat much chicken, but the government and a slew of NGOs are hoping to change this with new breeds of climate-proof birds.
Southern Africa: In Malawi, mask requirements for schoolchildren mean that kids from poor families are being excluded from lessons. This is a good long read on the rise of an ecological protest movement in Mauritius following the massive offshore oil spill of August 2020.
Art break: check out this stunning portrait series from Poley Folarin
Industrial policy: Here's an interesting paper about how competition with international firms forces businesses in Ethiopia and Tanzania to adopt new labor-saving technologies, so that even profitable firms don't end up employing many people. Don't miss this TED Talk about how African countries can meet their energy needs for development, by my dear friend Rose Mutiso. Without strong domestic manufacturing capacity or regulatory regimes, African countries are mostly dependent on expensive imported medicines. Surveys in 18 African countries found that citizens are mostly happy with China's role in industrial development, although they have concerns about rising debt levels.
Gender + sexuality: Non-binary people are slowly gaining representation in Nigeria's LGBT+ community. The Ugandan government is stepping up arrests of LGBT+ people under the cover of enforcing social distancing restrictions. Nigerian women's leadership in the #EndSARS campaign against police brutality draws from a long history of activism by inspiring women like Funmilayo Ransome Kuti and Eniola Soyinka. When Nigerian men abandoned their wives while they were giving birth to avoid paying hospital fees, a new women's association stepped up to cover their costs. A Kenyan court has ordered the government to pay compensation to four women who were sexually assaulted during the 2007 - 2008 postelectoral violence, in a landmark legal ruling in the region.
African countries face a long wait for the covid vaccine (via Foluke Adebisi)
Urban histories: Take a tour through 17th century Benin City, which at the time was larger than Lisbon. The new Edo Museum of West African Art will soon host hundreds of bronze sculptures which were stolen from the city by the British in the late 1800s. Ugandan activists are also campaigning to rename the many roads in Kampala which still bear the names of colonizers. An alternative visual history of the Atlantic trade in enslaved people can be found in the Afro-Brazilian architecture of Porto-Novo, Benin.
Education and research: I'm pleased to share that the Mawazo Institute has just launched our new Mawazo Learning Exchange website, which will host courses and training materials for scholars at African universities. Meet the Kenyan health economist directing the local trial of the Oxford covid vaccine. Looking forward to the launch of Robtel Neajai Pailey's new book on dual citizenship in Liberia in West Africa, the US and Europe next year!
Cheers,
Rachel