THOUGHT LEADERSHIP - The African Mirror

Sep

05

2025

60% of Africans don’t believe democracy is working in their interests – how parliaments can fix the problem

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

ACROSS Africa, democracy is being tested by rising authoritarianism and military coups as well as a growing disconnect between citizens and the institutions meant to represent them. The latest flagship report from Afrobarometer, a pan African research network, delivers a powerful warning. Citizen Engagement, Citizen Power, released in July 2025, reports that over 60% of Africans are dissatisfied with how democracy works in their countries. Support for democracy remains high, but belief in its effectiveness is fading, especially when citizens feel excluded from meaningful participation in decisions that affect them. Put simply, the crisis of participation results from people being…

Sep

04

2025

By KRISTOF TITECA

DRC’s latest peace deal is breaking down and it isn’t the first – what’s being done wrong

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

A series of peace initiatives since 2021 have sought to address the escalation of conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) following a renewed offensive from the M23 rebel group. The origins of this crisis go back to the First Congo War in 1996. Since then, the intensity of conflict in eastern DRC has ebbed and surged. The current M23 offensive represents one of its most violent phases. Over nearly three decades, numerous peace efforts have been undertaken, yet neither local, regional, nor international interventions have succeeded in bringing lasting stability. Crucially, they have failed to tackle the broader…

Sep

03

2025

By Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina

“In the last 10 years I had no life. I was always thinking Africa, dreaming for Africa, inspiring Africa and delivering for Africa”

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

I AM grateful to God that I was created and born as an African. I will always work to advance Africa's interests and expand possibilities and opportunities for our continent. I will live as an African. I will die as an African. And on the resurrection day, if it is possible, I hope God will let me come back as an African. I dreamed that one day I would have the opportunity to serve the continent. That opportunity came on May 28, 2015, when I was elected President of the African Development Bank Group right in this hall. From the…

Sep

02

2025

By JOHN AERNI-FLESSNER

Lesotho’s historian ‘Burns’ Machobane told the country’s story – and helped build it after colonialism

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

LAST year, Lesotho celebrated 200 years since the founding of the nation by Moshoeshoe I. This year the small country in southern Africa will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of its independence from colonial Britain. As it does so, the number of Basotho people who personally saw colonialism end is rapidly diminishing. Even smaller is the number of people who can claim to have built the institutions that mark post-colonial Lesotho, and post-colonial Africa more broadly. Professor Lehlohonolo Burns Banda Jiane Machobane, who died on 9 August 2025, was one such person. Lesotho (green) is surrounded by South Africa. TapticInfo/Wiki…

Sep

01

2025

By MANU LEKUNZE

Cameroon’s election risks instability, no matter who wins

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

CAMEROONIANS will vote in presidential elections on 12 October 2025. The incumbent, Paul Biya, who has been in office for nearly 43 years, will be a candidate. In 2025, as in the last election in 2018, and in all presidential elections since 1992, it is reasonable to expect that the ruling party will win. And opposition parties will want to protest. If Biya wins, by the end of the new term in 2032, he will have been in power for half a century. It will be a feat no other executive head of state has ever achieved in modern history.…

Aug

30

2025

By MOKY MAKURA

A thousand wrongs…

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

A friend of mine is one of those (annoying?) people who seem to know everything and have the facts to back it up. Over the years, we’ve had many debates where I relied on what felt obvious, what was everywhere around me. He would patiently listen, then remind me of the old saying: “A thousand wrongs don’t make a right.” And often, annoyingly, he was right. In other words, just because something is repeated, reinforced, and accepted doesn’t mean it is true. His words have never felt more relevant than when it comes to how we see the world -…

Aug

29

2025

By The African Mirror

A Tribute to Tshidi Madia: Voice of truth and accountability

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

JOVIAL RANTAO THE airwaves have fallen silent where once a powerful voice rang out with clarity, conviction, and unwavering integrity. Tshidi Madia, whose name became synonymous with fearless journalism and incisive political analysis, has left us after a brief illness, leaving behind a legacy that will echo through the corridors of South African media for generations to come. In a profession where many chase headlines, Tshidi chased truth. Her voice on the radio was more than just sound waves cutting through the static - it was a beacon of clarity in the often murky waters of political discourse. When she…

Aug

28

2025

By POPPY CULLEN

Christians and the British empire: how a church NGO got entangled in colonial violence in Kenya

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

IN the 1950s, Kenyans fought against colonial control in what came to be known as the Mau Mau rebellion. In response, the British government announced a state of emergency in 1952 and engaged in a brutal counter-insurgency campaign to secure control of colonial Kenya. During the emergency, tens of thousands of Kikuyu, Embu and Meru – tribal groups predominantly from central Kenya – were detained without trial in camps. These detention camps relied on torture sanctioned by the government to get detainees to renounce their nationalistic ambitions. More than one million other Kenyans were forcibly relocated into new and controlled…

Aug

26

2025

By HENNING MELBER

Namibia celebrates independence heroes, but glosses over a painful history

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

NAMIBIA celebrates 26 August as Heroes’ Day. It recalls the first military encounter between the South African army and members of the South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo), Namibia’s liberation movement, in 1966. Initially a German colony (1884-1915), the country was then administered by South Africa, which refused to give up the occupation. Since independence in 1990, the heroic Swapo liberation narrative has also been inscribed in Heroes’ Acre, a monument built by North Korea. The institutionalised public commemoration in Namibia today – rightly – recalls the sacrifices of those who were willing to fight for self-determination. At the same…

Aug

23

2025

By PETER J. BROWN

Enslaved Africans, an uprising and an ancient farming system in Iraq: study sheds light on timelines

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

WRITTEN accounts tell the story of the Zanj rebellion – a slave revolt that took place in the late 9th century in southern Iraq. Some of the rebels were enslaved Africans working in various sectors of the local economy. Thousands of ridges and canals still stand today across a floodplain in southern Iraq. They’ve long been believed to be the remains of a massive agricultural system built by these enslaved people. Creating them and farming here could have been what drove the rebellion that’s often thought to have led to the rapid decline of the historic city of Basra and…