THOUGHT LEADERSHIP - The African Mirror

Oct

28

2025

From bondage to Bandung: How centuries of kinship shape South Africa and Malaysia’s shared future

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

TO fully understand relations between South Africa and Malaysia, one must delve into the historical linkages between our two countries. We need to understand how these connections established a firm foundation for our relationship today, and how they can pave the way for a bright future through South-South diplomacy. The bonds that bind our two nations together are not only bonds of friendship—they are bonds of kinship that go back several hundred years. Today, we pay tribute to the rulers and peoples of the Malay-Indonesian archipelago, whose exiles, workers and scholars helped build the South African nation. The Cape Malay…

Oct

27

2025

By JONATHAN POWELL and SALAH BEN HAMMOU

Madagascar coup: why turning a blind eye to an unpopular president weakens regional bodies

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

WHAT began in late September as Madagascar’s student demonstrations over crippling electricity outages and water shortages quickly evolved into broader demands for political reform. It became a call to dismantle a system widely seen as corrupt and unaccountable, and for President Andry Rajoelina to resign. As demonstrations swelled across the country, the embattled president sought to restore order through curfews, the dismissal of his energy minister, and ultimately the dissolution of his government. To no avail. Eventually, the elite CAPSAT unit – the same corps that had propelled Rajoelina to power during the 2009 coup – overthrew him. Once CAPSAT…

Oct

24

2025

By ANTHONY DIALA

Black Coffee and Enhle ruling sends a clear message: customary and white weddings are equal in South Africa

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

SOUTH AFRICAN actress and businesswoman Enhle Mbali Mlotshwa has won a victory in the Johannesburg High Court. It ruled that her customary marriage to music star Nkosinathi “Black Coffee” Maphumulo was valid, declaring their later civil marriage and antenuptial contract null and void. Mlotshwa is now legally entitled to half of the couple’s vast estate. A scholar of legal pluralism and specialist in customary law marriage, Anthony Diala, answers our questions. What is customary marriage and how does it fit into South African law? A customary marriage is a union between a man and one or more women, which is…

Oct

23

2025

By JOHN MUKUM MBAKU

Raila Odinga: the Kenyan statesman who championed competitive politics and accountability

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

RAILA Amolo Odinga, who died on 15 October 2025, aged 80, ran five times for the Kenyan presidency but didn’t win. Yet he became a statesman of enormous influence, whose political and humanitarian achievements surpassed those of many African heads of state. He will be remembered as one of the most important figures in the struggle for multiparty democracy. In this, he was like his father, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga – who was the country’s first post-independence vice-president. Oginga was a patriot, a nationalist, and one of a small number of Kenyans who were instrumental in the struggle against colonialism. In…

Oct

23

2025

By FANNY VOÉLIN

Madagascar protests: how ousted president Andry Rajoelina’s urban agenda backfired

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE youth-led protests that eventually brought down Madagascar’s President Andry Rajoelina were sparked, in part, by his attempt to use large-scale urban infrastructure projects as a means of consolidating power. Rajoelina’s government placed urban mega-projects at the centre of its strategy to assert power and legitimacy. These projects enabled him to create and channel rents to key allies, while anchoring his rule in Malagasy history and territory. They were also meant to transform the spatial and political imaginaries of the state through monumental visions of modernity and development. By spatial and political imaginaries, I mean the contested ways leaders and…

Oct

23

2025

By PROFESSOR ALICE NCUBE

Africa’s path to resilience: time for Africa to invest in resilience to reduce disaster risks

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

EACH year, the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction - held every year on 13 October - reminds the world that disasters are not inevitable. While hazards such as floods, droughts, cyclones, and disease outbreaks will continue to occur, the scale of their impact depends on how well prepared we are to anticipate, prevent, and respond to them. This truth is particularly urgent for Africa, where climate change, rapid [informal] urbanisation, and fragile infrastructure make millions of people increasingly vulnerable. The 2025 theme highlights the need to look at disaster risks in a rapidly changing global landscape. Across Africa, climate…

Oct

22

2025

By DEREK ATTRIDGE

Zoë Wicomb, the South African-Scottish writer who told powerful stories about belonging

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

ZOË Wicomb, a celebrated South African-Scottish writer and scholar, has died. All my memories of her crystallise around her voice: it brought a small piece of South Africa into whatever context she found herself in. Whether it was a public reading (always a source of terror for her) or an animated conversation in the Glasgow home in Scotland, which she and her husband, the photographer Roger Palmer, had made into a beautiful dwelling. The cadences of her speech, untouched by the Glaswegian accents around her, were those of her native Namaqualand in South Africa and the coloured community among which…

Oct

22

2025

By NDIZEYE INNOCENT

“Remember we exist”, refugees in Malawi say as aid is slashed

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

FOR more than two decades, I have called the Dzaleka Refugee Camp home, though “home” has always been a complicated word here. Dzaleka was never meant to be permanent, yet for many of us, it has become the only place we know. Over the years, it has grown into a community of its own, made up of refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, and Ethiopia. Children born here have become parents themselves. Schools and small markets have sprung up, and through it all, one name has been constant – the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. This…

Oct

21

2025

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

The longest week: Cameroon’s moment of reckoning

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

CAMEROON stands on a knife-edge this week, a nation gripped by a tense and historic political moment destined to shape its future for years to come. The longest week in Cameroonian politics has unfolded like a high-stakes thriller, with the air thick with anticipation and anxiety as the country waits for the Constitutional Council's official announcement of presidential election results, scheduled for Thursday, October 23rd at 10:30 a.m. at the Yaoundé Convention Center. After a nationwide vote on October 12th that has sparked fierce claims of victory from rival camps, uncertainty reigns supreme. In the capital's streets, in the bustling…

Oct

21

2025

By AMÉLIE GODEFROIDT

Should Boko Haram fighters be given a second chance in society? We asked 2,000 young Nigerians

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

ACROSS the world, the question of how to deal with former fighters remains urgent. From Nigeria and Iraq to Syria and the Sahel, governments are wrestling with how to bring people who once fought for violent groups back into society. Reintegrating ex-fighters – after appropriate punishment – is unavoidable. This is because alternatives such as indefinite detention, capital punishment or abandonment are unsustainable and risk fuelling future cycles of violence. Yet local communities often seem to resist welcoming ex-combatants back. How, then, can societies balance the need for reintegration with local resistance? As scholars of public opinion during and after…