1 May 2021
Nigeria: The article’s author is an expert in Igbo entrepreneurship. The article looks into the role of family affinity and networks in (often successful) Igbo business (which predates colonial times) and how entrepreneurial knowhow is passed on to the following generation, focussing on “Nwaboi” (informal volunteering); the role of first son (di-okpara); the independent and individualist, yet communal, “acephalous” nature of the Igbos (“Igbo enwe Eze” – Igbos have no king); and the role of kindred (Umunna). The Umunna (sons of the land), Umuada (daughters of the land) and Ikwu (members of a kindred) also play their roles.
https://theconversation.com/lessons-from-igbo-trans-generational-entrepreneurship-why-it-matters-158478
Ghana/cocoa: Of the US$150bn worth of the global chocolate industry West Africa gets less than US$6bn although it supplies 70% of the cocoa beans. “Ghana has increased its own cocoa processing in recent years, from 200,000 tonnes to 400,000 tonnes in 2019, but it mostly remains at the stage of semi-finished products”. The state, in dire need of foreign exchange, provides support for domestic processing only if the products are exported, not if they are produced for the domestic market. Domestic processing is furthermore subject to high taxes. The author makes some suggestions how to boost domestic processing. Because, if we believe president Akufo-Addo, Ghana “intends to process 50% of annual cocoa domestically and, by extension, expand domestic chocolate production.”
https://theconversation.com/why-ghana-doesnt-get-the-full-value-of-its-cocoa-beans-and-how-this-could-change-158773
30 April 2021
Nigeria: Germany has announced that it would return some Benin bronzes looted during colonial times by 2022.
BBC Africa Live 30 April 2021. 5:42
Kenya: The Interior Minister now says the Dadaab and Kauma refugee camps which host more than 400,000 refugees from Somalia, South Sudan and the Congo-Kinshasa are to be closed by end June 2022. The government together with UNHCR would “fast track the process set to begin on 5 May 2022. The latest roadmap includes voluntary repatriation or issuing of free work or residence permits for refugees from the East African Community”.
BBC Africa Live 30 April 2021. 4:35
South Africa: Taken to hospital a week ago with an unspecified illness, the death of 65-year-old Zulu queen Mantfombi Dlamini has caught everybody by surprise. She had been appointed interim regent of the around 11 million Zulus after the death of her husband only last month. Her 47-year-old son, Prince Misuzulu, is the favourite to become king.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-56934753
Madagascar: In the south, hundreds of thousands are facing famine, with severely malnourished children and starving families abounding. According to the World Food Programme of the UN, food production is expected to come to less than 40% of the five year average. “A drought (…), made worse by high levels of soil erosion, deforestation and unprecedented sandstorms, has wasted the land available for crop and pasture.”
BBC Africa Live 30 April 2021. 8:15
Somalia: Once almost cereal independent, production of essential cereals maize and sorghum has fallen from 91 kg per capita in 1972 to 30 kg in 2012 due to stagnating production while population is growing. For the past 30 years, Somalia has been in a near-constant state of food insecurity and it has suffered two famines (1992 and 2011). Food aid and imports are disincentives for farmers to increase production beyond their proper consumption needs. Conflict (there are 2.6 IDP in Somalia), corruption and bad governance also reduce production. The article, by three experts in Somalian agriculture, looks more closely at the reasons and suggests solutions.
https://theconversation.com/somalia-is-facing-another-food-crisis-heres-why-and-what-can-be-done-to-stop-the-cycle-159240
Chad: With Idriss Déby Itno dead, “it seems likely that force will again be used to capture and retain political power, destabilising the country. The greatest weakness that confronts the new military junta is that they have no real claim to political legitimacy other than force.” The article’s author identifies several characteristics of Idriss Déby Itno’s 30-year-long rule that do not bode well for the future: continued use of violence, multiparty democracy by name only, non-respect for the constitution, political manipulation, lack of popular legitimacy.
https://theconversation.com/five-key-insights-into-debys-leadership-that-point-to-where-chad-may-be-heading-159713
Education & Inequality: Education has always been selective. After discussing the influence of several factors (scholarship availability, cheaper private education, better state school system, more online learning) on inequality, the author concludes: “Perhaps the most substantive movement to reduce inequalities would not be to accelerate access to a broken system but to reform the system itself.” This would have to go beyond the present system based on literacy and numeracy – though the article remains totally vague as to what that means.
https://theconversation.com/education-and-inequality-in-2021-how-to-change-the-system-158470
Zimbabwe: According to the 2019 National Renewable Energy Policy, solar, hydro, biomass, wind and geothermal energy is to provide 16.5% of the country’s total energy generation by 2025 and 26.5% by 2030. But unless the socio-economic and political factors which keep conventional energy out of reach of the poor change, the same will happen with renewable energy. True, but so what? A revolution?
https://theconversation.com/why-renewable-energy-wont-end-energy-poverty-in-zimbabwe-159008
South Africa: The article’s author looked into the correlation between grit (perseverance and passion for long-term goals) and reading achievement among 2,300 pupils in poorly resourced South African schools and found “that grit was the strongest predictor of reading achievement, regardless of the influence of other factors at home and school”, in fact, grit was the strongest predictor of overall achievement in school. Focusing on social and emotional skills is thus important. But of course, grit is not all: “Children who already had the benefit of attending more functional schools achieved more by being “gritty” than learners in less functional schools.”
https://theconversation.com/grit-matters-when-a-child-is-learning-to-read-even-in-poor-south-african-schools-157982
Cameroon: Separatists have killed 4 soldiers in a revenge attack on a military post in the West region. According to UN estimates, at least 3,500 people have been killed in the secessionist conflict in North-West and South-West since 2016.
BBC Africa Live 30 April 2021. 17:15