THOUGHT LEADERSHIP - The African Mirror

Dec

31

2025

Sexual abuse and blood theft: What I found at a camp for Sudanese displaced from El Fasher

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

FOR nearly three years, I have documented the human toll of Sudan’s war, including the suffering it has caused to my own family. Yet little compares to what I heard last week at a displacement camp in the town of Al Dabbah in northern Sudan. This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian. By Mohammed Amin The camp hosts nearly 15,000 people from the western Darfur region who fled attacks by the UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces after the group seized the city of El Fasher on 26 October, killing thousands in one of the war’s worst atrocities yet. Many…

Dec

30

2025

By ABBEY MAKOE

US faces China’s backlash over “provocative” Taiwan arms sale

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE People's Republic of China has unleashed a major backlash against what it calls a provocative US decision to sell large-scale arms to Taiwan, which China considers an inalienable part of its territory. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced countermeasures against 20 US military companies and 10 senior executives involved in arming Taiwan in recent years. In a statement published on its website, the Ministry declared in no uncertain terms: "No country or force shall ever underestimate the resolve, will and ability of the Chinese government and people to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity." Appealing for adherence…

Dec

29

2025

By VICTORIA GIBBON and CIRAJ RASSOOL

Looted African belongings must be returned: is it repatriation or restitution? The words we use matter

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

MUSEUMS and universities around the world hold vast collections of cultural artefacts, artworks, objectified belongings and even ancestral remains. Many were not freely given but taken during colonial times, through force, manipulation, theft or violence. For decades, they have sat in storerooms and display cases, classified into categories like anthropology, natural history or ethnology, separated from the people and communities to whom they once belonged. In recent years, there has been growing recognition that these collections carry painful legacies. Calls for their return have become part of a global conversation about decolonisation, justice and healing. In 2018, French President Emmanuel…

Jul

28

2025

By ROSE NAKAYI and JÖRG WIEGRATZ

Uganda’s land eviction crisis: do populist state measures actually fix problems?

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

POPULISM is rife in various African countries. This political ideology responds to and takes advantage of a situation where a large section of people feels exploited, marginalised or disempowered. It sets up “the people” against “the other”. It promises solidarity with the excluded by addressing their grievances. Populism targets broad social groups, operating across ethnicity and class. But how does populism fare when it informs state interventions to address long-standing societal issues under capitalism? Do populist state measures – especially when launched by a politically powerful leader – deliver improvements for the stated beneficiaries? As academics who have researched populism…

Jun

18

2025

By MOHAMMED AMIN

Khartoum is free of the RSF, but survival is still a struggle

HEADLINES, THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian.By Mohammed Amin HUNDREDS of families were moving in both directions last month as I drove between Port Sudan – the country’s wartime capital – and Khartoum, the real capital, now under army control after a painful occupation by the Rapid Support Forces. Heading toward Khartoum were returnees crammed into small trucks, packed full of furniture and other household items. They had fled two years earlier when the RSF swept into the city. Now, some were returning to see what was left of their homes. But going the other way – back…

Dec

22

2025

By TSWELOPELE MAKOE

RIP Lusanda Dumke: The captain of the unseen

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

WHEN Nelson Mandela spoke the following words, he was describing a force capable of bridging the deepest chasms of our unequal society. “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair.” In the life and career of the Springbok legend Lusanda Dumke, we saw those Mandela’s words made flesh. Dumke’s journey from the grassroots fields of the Eastern Cape to the captaincy of the Springbok Women was more than a sports…

Dec

19

2025

By LUKE MELCHIORRE

Uganda election: Museveni will win, but the landscape has changed since his last victory

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

ON the eve of Uganda’s 2021 presidential election, it was clear that regardless of how Ugandans voted, the incumbent, Yoweri Museveni, would most likely be declared the winner. Amid mounting repression, accusations of vote rigging, and an internet blackout, that is exactly what transpired. Museveni was declared the winner for his sixth consecutive term in office. Five years on, that prediction could just as easily and accurately be applied to the 15 January 2026 vote. This should not be taken as evidence that national politics in Uganda have remained static. Far from it. It is true that state repression has…

Dec

19

2025

By TONY ROBERTS

Internet shutdowns are increasing dramatically in Africa – a new book explains why

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

BETWEEN 2016 and 2024, there were 193 internet shutdowns imposed in 41 African countries. This form of social control is a growing trend on the continent, according to a new open-access source book. It has provided the first-ever comparative analysis of how and why African states use blackouts – written by African researchers. The book, co-edited by digital rights activist and internet shutdown specialist Felicia Anthonio and digital researcher Tony Roberts, offers 11 in-depth case studies of state-sponsored shutdowns. We asked five questions about it. How do you define an internet shutdown, and why do they happen? Put simply, an…

Dec

18

2025

By JOVIAL RANTAO

The roar that never came: Africa’s Formula One dream deferred

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

WHILE champagne corks popped in the Algarve, the sound echoing across those spectacular Portuguese beaches and historic cobblestoned streets, a different kind of silence settled over Kigali and Johannesburg. The kind of silence that follows grand pronouncements, carefully designed circuits, and presidential declarations - when the phone call you're waiting for goes to voicemail. Again. Portugal is back, baby! 2027 and 2028! Two glorious years of that rollercoaster circuit, those dramatic elevation changes, that plunge down to the final right-hander. Lewis Hamilton will return to the site of his record-breaking 92nd victory, where he surpassed the immortal Michael Schumacher. The…

Dec

16

2025

By SAANA HANSEN

The price of going home: Christmas boxes and the final return from South Africa to Zimbabwe

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

EACH December, long-distance buses, minibus taxis and private cars stream northwards from South Africa as Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second biggest city, prepares for its annual ritual: the seasonal homecoming of “injiva” – migrants returning for Christmas. The old industrial city, where businesses have declined, and shops and restaurants struggle to survive, fills temporarily with cars with South African number plates and people dressed in trendy clothes signalling urban South African lifestyles. Trailers are loaded with remittances known as “Christmas boxes” containing cooking oil, soap and other groceries. A jumping castle is erected in the park, and popular music merges with laughter…