THOUGHT LEADERSHIP - The African Mirror

Jun

03

2026

Memory is an Antidote Against Forgetting

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

ON an October day in 1988, a comrade of mine who was part of our leadership echelon in the underground in Swaziland sent an urgent message requesting to see me. As it was often the case with the treacherous underground working conditions in that country, we agreed to meet under the cover of darkness on the evening of the same day at a venue in Mbabane. I primed my pistol and holstered it securely on my belt. I put a few hand grenades in a holding panel in the inside of the driver’s door and set out on a drive…

Jun

02

2026

By BONFACE ORUCHO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

In Conversation with Channel Andrews on African mobility, diaspora identity, and the border contradictions shaping continental integration

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

WHEN Togo announced in May that it would become visa-free for all African passport holders, the decision was widely welcomed across the continent as another milestone in Africa’s long-running push toward freer movement and deeper integration. The measure, announced by President of the Council Faure Gnassingbé during the Biashara Afrika 2026 forum in Lomé, positioned Togo among a growing number of African countries easing entry restrictions for fellow Africans as governments seek to align border systems with the ambitions of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Authorities said the policy was intended to strengthen African integration, improve the free…

Jun

01

2026

By TSWELOPELE MAKOE

2026 Elections: No vote, No escape

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

The Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has officially launched the 2026 Local Government Election season, and that matters more than some people are treating it right now. Because the IEC is not just announcing another voting cycle — it is activating one of the only national moments where political power is temporarily redistributed equally. It is the only institution that still forces the country into a shared moment, where the rich, the poor, the powerful and the forgotten all carry one equal voice. And in a country like South Africa, that moment matters more than words can describe.…

May

30

2026

By JOVIAL RANTAO

The Earth Took Back Its Diamond: Farewell to Baldwin Ndaba – 1961-2026

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

ON a beautiful, crisp winter morning in Kimberley, the city came to pay its dues. The Northern Cape sky - pale and wide and unforgiving in the way only the Karoo fringe can be - stretched above the mourners who gathered to say farewell to Baldwin Ndaba. The air carried that particular stillness of a Highveld winter: cold, clear, honest. It was the kind of morning Baldwin would have noticed. He noticed everything. He had come home. After a week of tributes - journalists and editors, university friends and comrades, sources who trusted him and rivals who respected him -…

May

30

2026

By BAYO ONANUGA

BOLA TINUBU: The man who took the bullet for Nigeria to survive

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

WITH politicking intensifying ahead of the January 2027 election, opposition politicians have escalated their campaign of misinformation and calumny to diminish the impact and achievements of this administration over the last three years. Two years ago, when the administration was struggling to deal with the unintended consequences of its historic reforms, the campaign would have made sense. But not anymore, as the administration can rightly claim bragging rights for what it has achieved against all odds and why the international community is applauding it for putting Nigeria irrevocably on the path of growth and development. The impact of the three-year-old…

May

29

2026

By REDIE BEREKETEAB

Ethiopia votes: dominant ruling party seeks a new mandate in a deeply fragmented nation

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

ETHIOPIA’S general election on 1 June 2026 will take place amid armed conflicts and political fragmentation. This has raised questions over voter participation and legitimacy and the future of the country’s multi-ethnic federal system. Ethiopia is Africa’s second most populous country and a key regional actor in the Horn of Africa. Redie Bereketeab, who researches state- and nation-building, identity and nationalism in the Horn of Africa, unpacks the 2026 election. Who is on the ballot, and what is at stake? Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Prosperity Party remains by far the strongest political force nationally. The party controls most federal and…

May

27

2026

By NINA WILÉN

The Sahel region is less secure than ever: foreign forces just add to the cycle of violence

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

SEVERAL of Mali’s major cities experienced coordinated attacks in April by a new coalition of jihadists and separatist groups. As the coalition took over the town of Kidal in the north of Mali, images of Russian troops being escorted out of the town after negotiations were cabled out across global media. Russia, now in the shape of Africa Corps and previously the Wagner Group, has been the Malian military’s external security partner since the beginning of 2022. It replaced French and European troops from the counter-terrorism operation Barkhane and Taskforce Takuba. France had deployed a force of 5,000 troops from…

May

26

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

The bromance is over: how Senegal’s kingmaker became its kingbreaker

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

SENEGAL has entered a constitutional crucible of its own making. In the space of days, the West African nation has lurched from promising democratic reformism to a full-blown political war between two men who once personified its hope - a young president and the revolutionary who made him, now facing each other across the barricades of the republic they vowed to transform. President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has sacked his Prime Minister, Ousmane Sonko. In any other political context, that sentence would be unremarkable - presidents sack prime ministers. In Senegal today, it is seismic. Sonko was not merely Faye's premier.…

May

26

2026

By SAMAH FAWZI

With hardship comes ease: Encountering kindness as a Sudanese in exile

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

IT is very hard to ask, “How are you doing?” after three years. That is how long it has been since the war erupted in Sudan and changed our lives forever. Finding and creating the space to check on each other and ask how someone is doing in relation to everything the war has unravelled and uprooted is becoming increasingly difficult. Everyone is surviving. Everyone is trying to overcome. Some are trying to forget. Some are trying to move on. In different ways, we try to stay grounded in the present. To hold on to the goodness in the people…

May

22

2026

By JOVIAL RANTAO

THE VALLEY REMEMBERED HER…

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

A Farewell to Florence “Florah” Tsedu, returned to the earth at Tshavhalovezhi The rain knew. It came softly, in quiet intervals, as though the sky itself had been briefed - as though heaven was preparing the earth to receive something precious. At Tshavhalovhezhi, in Venda, Limpopo, beneath those rolling skies and above that valley whose memory is long and whose soil does not forget, we laid to rest Florence “Florah” Tsedu: a beautiful soul, a magnificent woman, a presence that had coloured this world in ways that no single telling can fully contain. Heartbreak and celebration moved together on that…