Africa gets bigger on paper

There are two ways to make Africa smaller. You draw it smaller, or you teach the world to look at it that way, and that’s precisely what the Mercator map – which you will find on most office walls... 

The T. rex’s closest relative returns

If antidumping investigations concerning a good were a movie genre, would they be considered a franchise or a reboot? It is a trick question because, although a reboot is almost always part of an... 

My Hichilema hunch needs revisiting

A few weeks back, I congratulated Hakainde Hichilema on his re-election as Zambia’s President. I did so with the confidence of a journalist who had watched the votes come in, watched the results... 

First the English, then deportees

Last year, when Donald Trump invited a select group of African leaders to the White House, Liberian President Joseph Boakai found himself on the receiving end of one of those remarks that can sound... 

Hichilema wins again – Phew!

I have a confession to make: I have always had a bit of a soft spot for Hakainde Hichilema. So, when the Electoral Commission of Zambia confirmed in the wee hours of August 18 that he had secured a... 

The great African shuffle

We all make mistakes from time to time. Few mistakes, however, manage to place Nigeria in the Sahara Desert and move Mozambique to the Horn of Africa, while relocating several other African... 

The price of perception

Africa’s biggest financial complaint isn’t that it lacks capital, but that it has been paying too much to access it. The continent’s answer is its own credit rating agency, set to open its doors in... 

WhatsApp’s invisible ballot box

In an earlier edition of this column, I described 2026 as Africa’s bumper election year because of the unusually crowded electoral calendar across the continent and singled out Zambia’s August 13... 

Wrong bees behind bars

When South African law-enforcement agents periodically crack down on illegal mining, television cameras invariably find the same subjects: grimy individuals emerging from mine shafts, blinking into... 

Rick Grantham

This week we profile Richard Grantham, joint CE: Mid-Market at Deal Leaders International, a sell-side merger-and-acquisition advisory services firm 

When corruption becomes government

Every so often, Africa unveils a corruption scandal so audacious that even the most seasoned investigators momentarily lose the plot: one official pays millions for goods that never existed,... 

America’s deportation dump

Donald Trump’s US is at it again. Just when I thought Washington had exhausted its list of African countries willing to receive migrants it doesn’t want, along comes another. This time, it’s the... 

When everything needs an app

There was a time when one could buy an air ticket, renew a TV licence, file tax returns, pay a bill or book a doctor’s appointment without downloading anything. Today, almost every service begins... 

African roots power European football

Here is a little secret about this column: I pen it (boy, do I actually use a Bic!) ten days before it’s published. So, the creative juices that produced this piece flowed on June 22, and by then... 

Degrees, jobs and African farms

There was a time when a university degree came with an almost implicit guarantee: a desk, a payslip, and a place in the middle class. African parents sold cattle and made extraordinary sacrifices... 

Zimbabwe mining investment rising steadily and extends beyond lithium

Although Zimbabwe has endured more than two decades of frequent bad press linked to its politics, the negative headlines have not prevented billions of dollars in mining foreign direct investment... 

Zimbabwe mining investment rising steadily and extends beyond lithium

Although Zimbabwe has endured more than two decades of frequent bad press linked to its politics, the negative headlines have not prevented billions of dollars in mining foreign direct investment... 

Davids fight third-country deportation Goliaths

Every so often, Africa surprises its critics. Just when one begins to despair that the continent’s human rights institutions are little more than expensive talk shops, along comes a legal challenge... 

Britain’s costly Rwanda misadventure

In the annals of public procurement, few projects rival one that cost £290-million, resulted in the relocation of just four unwanted immigrants to a faraway country and survived three Prime... 

Thabo Mbeki’s broken African dream

When former South African President Thabo Mbeki spoke at a recent event marking the sixty-third anniversary of the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) – which morphed into the... 

How corruption is powering Nigeria’s darkness

Weeks before disappearing from public view, Saleh Mamman announced his intention to run for governor of the Nigerian state of Taraba in 2027. Earlier this month, the former federal Power Minister... 

Factories drive Africa’s billionaires

We in South Africa have long comforted ourselves with the assumption that, whatever the continent’s turbulence, our economy is Africa’s biggest, anchored by deep capital markets, globally... 

Courts that constrict freedom

Concluding an 11-day, four-nation African trip in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, last month, the Catholic Church’s Pope Leo XIV spoke of the need to promote the dignity of prisoners and not to use the... 

Flight paths and fault lines

There was a time when Taiwan counted several African countries among its allies. Now, only one remains, and even that final relationship is so constrained that its leader cannot freely visit,... 

Sermon against executive excesses

On the second leg of a ten-day, four-nation African tour last month, Pope Leo XIV stood before Cameroon’s 93-year-old President Paul Biya in Yaoundé and did what many citizens would think twice... 

AfCFTA shifts from treaty architecture to operational trade system amid persistent frictions

A quiet shift is under way on the African continent. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), long billed as the most ambitious economic integration initiative since the Organisation of... 

AfCFTA shifts from treaty architecture to operational trade system amid persistent frictions

A quiet shift is under way on the African continent. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), long billed as the most ambitious economic integration initiative since the Organisation of... 

Bongani Khumalo

This week we profile Bongani Hilton Khumalo, GM: business development and integration at bp Southern Africa, a downstream petroleum and energy solutions company 

The long game of power

As British historian John Dalberg-Acton famously observed in the nineteenth century, power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This warning feels apt in relation to... 

Africa’s critical moment to lead change

The global race towards decarbonisation is not only an environmental imperative but also an industrial revolution at the core of which lies a simple fact: the world cannot transition to a... 

Fluency will fuel African trade

Angola – one of only two Portuguese-speaking nations in our Southern African neck of the woods – plans to introduce French as a compulsory school subject from the age of ten, a move officials argue... 

Starlink stumbles over Namibian laws

Elon Musk has once again failed to get his way, with Starlink, his satellite-based broadband network service, denied a licence in Namibia for failing to comply with local laws requiring a minimum... 

Afcon victory taken off the pitch

It may be just a football decision, but the ramifications are being felt far beyond the pitch. I’m referring, of course, to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) appeals board decision to... 

Trump versus the truth

Donald Trump was at it again this month, repeating the lie that Somali-born Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar married her brother to enter the US and describing her country of origin as “a... 

Ukraine war: Africa pays with its young men

The Russia-Ukraine war, now more than four years old, is the sort of distant conflict we Africans might imagine has nothing to do with us. Except that many of our young men – I have yet to hear of... 

Mediterranean migrants face rising deaths

More than 500 people died in the Mediterranean Sea in the first 40 days of 2026 as they desperately attempted to make their way to Europe in search of safety or opportunity, which their often... 

What impact will Africa’s busy 2026 election calendar have on the economic outlook?

Africa faces one of its most crowded electoral calendars this year at a time of shrinking global tolerance for political risk, turning the ballot box into a policy credibility test for investors... 

When elections turn bizarre

Elsewhere in this edition, I report on upcoming elections in Africa, drawing attention to continental observers’ concern that outcomes that increase political risk could dampen both domestic and... 

What impact will Africa’s busy 2026 election calendar have on the economic outlook?

Africa faces one of its most crowded electoral calendars this year at a time of shrinking global tolerance for political risk, turning the ballot box into a policy credibility test for investors... 

US deportation wave crashes again

It all happened below the media’s radar, but we now know that in the dead of night on January 14 nine men and women were handcuffed, bundled onto a plane and flown from the US to Yaoundé in...