The secrecy surrounding Sudanese President Omar el-Beshir’s invitation to Nairobi to celebrate Kenya’s new constitution is a bad omen for the newly-reborn Kenya.
A daily dose of Nigeria
The prospect of a wide open 2011 election campaign makes for good newspaper sales. Patrick Smith in Abuja gives a guide to the names behind Nigeria's printed press.
A renaissance in African development
Africa has emerged from the crisis in good shape. Two banks - Renaissance Capital and the African Development Bank - are striving to convince investors to look further south.
A Tanzanian welcome
Hosting the World Economic Forum on Africa has been a big chance for Tanzania to prove itself to the world
After the crisis, is now the moment to cut Western farm subsidies?
With the US and Europe running huge budget deficits and desperate to cut spending, should Africa seize this moment to push for a fairer system of world trade to help its farmers access world markets?
Who would be in your African football dreamteam?
Didier Drogba? Michael Essien? Samuel Eto'o? Tell us who you think should be in a dream Africa 11.
By : Nicholas Norbrook Tags : FIFA World Cup,
football
Freetown can be the Athens of West Africa once more
After a recent visit to Sierra Leone, Nicholas Norbrook finds the country is back in business.
By : Nicholas Norbrook Tags : africa,
agribusiness,
doing business,
Nigerian banks,
sierra leone,
West Africa
World Cup 2010: 100 days to what?
For Azad Essa, the press conference celebrating 100 days before kick-off failed to address the big questions that still need asking about how South Africans will benefit from the World Cup.
Bar hopping for Zuma
Azad Essa crawls the bars of Durban trying to find punters interested in watching President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation address live on TV. He finds most are more interested in the football.
Promises, promises - rich counties fail on their pledge to double aid by 2010
Africa is bearing the brunt of the slowdown of global aid commitments, according to the high-level Africa Progress Panel led by Kofi Annan and Olusegun Obasanjo
Shoot! Just shoot already!
Navigating the twists and turns of the Lagos rumour mill, Nicholas Norbrook listens to what is foremost in Nigerians’ minds: the fate of their footballers, the health of their president, or the success of their reality TV stars.
If the future doesn't work
Alongside the grand receptions to be convened next year to celebrate 50 years of independence from colonial rule, many Africans are arguing that their countries would benefit from a more solemn convention to produce a brutally honest stocktaking of the progress so far and to map out a forthright plan on the way ahead for the next 50.
By : Patrick Smith Tags : africa
We've got your number
Security services in Africa are rubbing their hands in delight as more governments order mobile companies to register everyone with a pre-paid SIM card. But the new rules are losing operators money and customers and raising concerns about what will be done with the information.
I want to be a militant when I grow up
Nigeria’s chief militant, Government Ekpeemuplo or Tompolo, is now on first-name terms with its President. Blogging from the Niger Delta for The Africa Report, Ibnbatuta explains why Tompolo has emerged as a role model for the youth there ….
The Mo Ibrahim Prize needs a makeover
It’s time to widen the contenders for the award away from a diminishing pool of suitable former-Presidents to include African leaders outside politics: scientists, doctors, educationists, writers, artists, and even entrepreneurs, write Patrick Smith in Lagos.
By : Patrick Smith Tags : governance,
Nigeria
A Zimbabwean parade in Istanbul
A massive police presence, protestors complaining about meddling in domestic economies, watercannons mounted on armoured cars – just another IMF/World Bank annual meeting, writes Nicholas Norbrook. Except this edition, in Istanbul, Turkey's majestic city on the Bosphorus, is being held one year after the spectacular meltdown in global equity markets. And the Zimbabwean roadshow is in full attendance.
Africa and the G-20 – What's missing?
The location of the summit of the Group of 20 countries on 25 September had an unintended significance, writes Patrick Smith. It was held in the United States' former steel-making city of Pittsburgh: it hosted the world's new steel-makers from Brazil, China, India, Korea and of course, South Africa, as it presided over another shift in economic gravity.
People, power and numbers
Sometime by the end of this year, the United Nations assures us, the billionth African will have been born. Amid global financial crises and wars in Afghanistan and Somalia, the significance of Africa joining the world’s billion people club, alongside China and India, has been lost. Yet it is more than a symbolic marker – the power of numbers in politics and economics is overwhelming.
By : Patrick Smith Tags : africa,
population