SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS - The African Mirror

May

10

2024

US-Africa trade deal turns 25 next year: Agoa’s winners, losers and what should come next

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

THE African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) is a landmark piece of trade legislation enacted by the United States in 2000. Its goal is to promote economic growth, development and poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa by providing qualifying countries with duty-free access to the US market for over 6,500 products. By eliminating import tariffs and quotas, Agoa aims to stimulate trade, attract foreign investment and foster economic integration between the US and African nations. Agoa has made strides in boosting exports from eligible African countries to the US. Between 2001 and 2021, the annual value of US imports from Agoa-eligible…

May

09

2024

By DANNY BRADLOW

South Africa will be president of the G20 in 2025: two much-needed reforms it should drive

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

SOUTH Africa will play an important international role in 2025 as president of the G20. The G20 is a group of 19 countries as well as the African Union and the European Union. Between them they represent 85% of the global economy, 75% of world trade and 67% of the global population. The G20 defines itself as the premier multilateral forum for international economic cooperation. During its G20 presidential year, South Africa will host a summit of heads of state and government. It will also be responsible for organising and chairing about 200 meetings of ministers and officials. These will…

May

03

2024

By KOFFI AMÉSSOU ADABA

Togo has adopted major constitutional changes to give parliament more power: how it will work

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

ON 25 March 2024, Togo adopted a new constitution that transforms its presidential system into a parliamentary one. Under this new system, parliament has the authority to elect the president of the republic. This major change will likely enable President Faure Gnassingbé, who has been in power since 2005, to extend his 19-year tenure by another term. This reform, adopted on first reading by MPs, sparked protests among opposition leaders who have denounced it as a constitutional coup. The law passed its second reading on 19 April. Koffi Amessou Adaba is a lecturer and researcher who has worked on the…

May

03

2024

By Hajooj Kuka

A mutual aid volunteer reflects on a year of war in Sudan

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

ONE year into a devastating war that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced nearly nine million, there is one thing flourishing in Sudan: mutual aid. Since 15 April 2023 – when the Rapid Support Forces and the regular army began fighting each other – we have seen our dreams of a democratic, prosperous nation destroyed, and we have lived through a year of unrelenting atrocities and loss. Yet at the same time, millions of Sudanese have remained in war-torn areas outside the reach of international aid agencies, finding ways to support each other using local resources and diaspora…

May

02

2024

By NOAH TAMARKIN

South Africa’s Lemba people: how they view their Jewishness challenges Zionist ideas that identity is linked to one homeland

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

A man wearing a yarmulke stands on the edge of a hill, quietly taking in the landscape below as he considers his ancestors and their histories in this place. This isn’t Israel. It is Mapungubwe Hill, a Unesco World Heritage Site in the north of South Africa’s Limpopo province. The man in the yarmulke is one of around 100,000 Lemba people, Black Jews who live in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Lemba people have long held that they are Jews by descent. In the 1990s and early 2000s, scientists set out to determine whether this could be genetically substantiated. Those studies…

May

01

2024

By MAYA MISIKIR

Weighed down by war and drought, Tigray struggles to get back on its feet

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

SEVENTEEN months since the fighting stopped in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, people are still trying to rebuild what was deliberately destroyed – a mammoth task for a population and local government left destitute by the two-year conflict. Every facet of life in the region – from jobs to social services to security – has been impacted by the scorched-earth war, in which as many as 600,000 people may have been killed. It ended with an African Union-brokered peace agreement in November 2022, but the bill for reconstruction has been calculated at $20 billion. The climate has also taken its toll in Tigray. A drought…

Apr

30

2024

By JONNY STEINBERG

How the Mandela myth helped win the battle for democracy in South Africa

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

POLITICAL history scholar Jonny Steinberg’s 2023 book Winnie & Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage is a double biography of South Africa’s most famous political figures – Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela Mandela – and their role in the country’s struggle for democracy. It’s also a book that shatters countless myths about the couple and the liberation struggle that have been formed in popular culture and even academic tellings of history. As South Africa commemorates 30 years of democracy, we asked Steinberg for his views on how and why these historical myths are formed. How did Winnie and Nelson become so…

Apr

29

2024

By The African Mirror

Sudan’s civil war is rooted in its historical favouritism of Arab and Islamic identity

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

THE current civil war in Sudan goes beyond a simple power struggle between two generals. It reflects a deep-rooted crisis within the country’s governing structure that’s been present since it gained independence from the British in 1956. Since independence, the Sudanese have experienced 35 coups and attempted coups, more than any other African country. In the country’s southern region a 56-year rebellion eventually led to the creation of South Sudan in 2011. A Darfurian uprising in 2003 was sparked by accusations that the central government was discriminating against the region’s non-Arab population. It led to ethnic killings and continues to…

Apr

26

2024

By NITA BHALLA and LIN TAYLOR

UK’s Rwanda plan: Which other nations send asylum seekers abroad?

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

THE British parliament has passed a divisive law to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promising that flights will take off by July, but legal hurdles could yet hold up or delay the policy. The "Safety of Rwanda" bill aims to cut immigration by deterring migrants from arriving without permission, but refugee rights groups say it criminalises genuine asylum seekers, and Britain's Supreme Court ruled last year that the East African nation was not a safe country to send people. Sunak has invested huge political capital in the Rwanda scheme, promising that it will stop tens of thousands of people arriving without…

Apr

25

2024

By MICHAEL HOLDEN

What is UK’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda?

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

BRITISH Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised to start sending asylum seekers to Rwanda within 10 to 12 weeks after parliament passed much-delayed legislation to facilitate the deportation of those arriving in Britain without permission. Last November, the Supreme Court declared the policy unlawful but Sunak says the new law overrides any legal concerns and will thus fulfil his pledge to stop people arriving across the Channel in small boats. Here are details about the plan and the migration issue: WHY IS IMMIGRATION SUCH AN ISSUE IN BRITAIN? Taking back control of Britain's borders and ending the free movement of people into the…