Threads

Philosophy & Thought Contemporary (2000–present)

Ubuntu is not a slogan — it's a theory of mutual obligation

The phrase *umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu* — 'a person is a person through other people' — has been mass-printed onto coffee mugs, hashtagged onto corporate diversity slides, and generally …

5 min read · Southern Africa · 56 views

Economic Systems Contemporary (2000–present)

The CFA franc peg — what holds it together and what would break it

Two CFA franc zones cover fourteen African countries — the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU/UEMOA) running through the BCEAO in Dakar, and the Central African Economic …

3 min read · West Africa, Central Africa · 2 views

Science & Technology Contemporary (2000–present)

M-Pesa as indigenous fintech — the regulatory accident that worked

M-Pesa, the Kenyan mobile-money system launched by Safaricom in 2007, is routinely described as African leapfrog innovation. That framing is partly right and partly misleading. M-Pesa did indeed …

1 min read · East Africa, Kenya · 47 views

Governance & Political Systems Contemporary (2000–present)

The African Union's governance dilemma — sovereignty, intervention, and the Sahel coups

Between 2020 and 2023 the African Union faced six successful military coups in its member states: Mali (twice), Burkina Faso (twice), Guinea, and Niger. In each case the …

1 min read · Pan-African, Sahel · 47 views

Society & Community Contemporary (2000–present)

Marrakech, Cairo, Tunis — medinas as living infrastructure

The historic medinas of Marrakech, Cairo, Fez, Tunis, and Sana'a have been treated by UNESCO and by domestic planning authorities as heritage sites. That is the legal category. …

2 min read · North Africa, Maghreb, Egypt · 41 views

Economic Systems Contemporary (2000–present)

South Sudan oil — how a state managed its independence dividend, and didn't

South Sudan became independent on 9 July 2011 with control over approximately 75% of what had been Sudan's oil production — the Greater Nile, Petrodar, and Dar Petroleum …

2 min read · East Africa, South Sudan · 38 views

Economic Systems Contemporary (2000–present)

Common Framework restructurings — Zambia, Chad, Ghana and the costs of slow sovereign debt diplomacy

The G20 Common Framework for Debt Treatments, launched in November 2020 in response to the pandemic-era debt distress wave, has now been applied — formally — to four …

2 min read · Pan-African · 29 views

Economic Systems Contemporary (2000–present)

Fonio commercialization — what the Pierre Thiam supply chain leaves out

The premium-export fonio supply chain — Pierre Thiam and Yolele Foods, the specialty-grain channel through Whole Foods and Eataly, the Slow Food Ark of Taste recognition — is …

2 min read · Sahel, West Africa · 24 views

Culture & Traditions Contemporary (2000–present)

Amazigh signage politics — what Casablanca and Algiers signal

Public-infrastructure signage is the most visible everyday material expression of national-language policy. The Maghrebine signage politics of Tifinagh (Amazigh) inclusion alongside Arabic and French — and the differential …

2 min read · North Africa, Maghreb · 18 views

Economic Systems Contemporary (2000–present)

Kolwezi cobalt — the artisanal supply chain that doesn't begin at the smelter

The Democratic Republic of Congo produces roughly 70% of the world's cobalt. About 20% of that comes from artisanal and small-scale mining — *creuseurs* working with hand tools …

2 min read · Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo · 23 views

Economic Systems Contemporary (2000–present)

Ethiopian coffee smallholders after the 2008 commodity bill — what changed and what didn't

Ethiopia is the birthplace of *coffea arabica* — the wild progenitor still grows in Kafa and the Bonga forest. It is also Africa's largest coffee producer, exporting between …

1 min read · Horn of Africa, Ethiopia · 21 views

Economic Systems Contemporary (2000–present)

Burkina Faso cotton — the cooperative model after the Western donors left

Burkina Faso was, by the early 2000s, the largest cotton producer in sub-Saharan Africa, and SOFITEX — the state ginning company — was the institutional spine of a …

2 min read · West Africa, Burkina Faso · 24 views