THOUGHT LEADERSHIP - The African Mirror

Jul

01

2025

This is why Africa must embrace nuclear energy

HEADLINES, THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE path ahead is clear. We must harness nuclear energy’s potential and adopt a bold political commitment backed by a clear national roadmap, including target dates for operational plants and long-term capacity-building initiatives. The potential is enormous and could result in creating thousands of skilled jobs and transforming Africa’s energy system towards greater energy security. Governments need to tap into the reliability of nuclear power. With a 90% capacity factor, plants enjoy up to 45 years of economic life. While large-scale reactors provide stable baseload power, low-hanging fruit should focus on deploying SMRs first (20-300 MW) to power mines and…

Jun

26

2025

By LUCA BUSSOTTI

Mozambique after 50 years of independence: what’s there to celebrate?

HEADLINES, THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

MOZAMBIQUE’S government, led by the Frelimo party, has long been planning celebrations for 2025. It is 50 years since independence, won after an anti-colonial war against Portugal led by the same party. Something has gone wrong, however, especially in the past two years. Since the country’s popular rapper Azagaia died in March 2023 and peaceful processions in his memory escalated into violent clashes with the police, space has opened up for the establishment of a social movement of young people. This has since turned into a political movement, taking on the name “Povo no Poder” (“People in Power”). At its…

Jun

25

2025

By SIMON GIKANDI

Ngũgi wa Thiong’o and the African literary revolution

HEADLINES, THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE passing of celebrated Kenyan writer and scholar Ngugi wa Thiong’o on 28 May 2025 marks the end of a remarkable period in African literary history – the fabulous decades in the second half of the 20th century when African writers came to command the world stage. This was the time of what I call the African literary revolution. As a scholar of African literature and the author of many books and papers on Ngugi, I have raised several questions about this period. Why and how did this revolution happen? What motivated this turn to the imagination as a tool…

Jun

20

2025

By ABBEY MAKOE

China steps in to rescue the global south as President Trump’s tariffs wreak havoc

HEADLINES, THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

AT a time of great economic strife across the global community - triggered largely by President Donald Trump's aggressive approach to foreign policy - too many nations are reeling from the weaponisation of tariffs as a diplomatic tool. Presiding over the world's largest economy and unparalleled military might that borders on omnipotence, President Trump's imposition of virtually indiscriminate tariffs has caused untold misery and enormous uncertainty among both developed and developing economies. While the West remains understandably embarrassed by Washington's punitive measures after decades of sustained diplomatic cooperation, the struggling nations of the Global South are hardest hit by Trump's…

Jun

19

2025

By PAA KWESI WOLSELEY PRAH

China’s support for Mali’s military carries risks: researcher outlines what they are

HEADLINES, THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

MALI, a landlocked Sahelian nation of 25 million people, has faced significant instability since 2012, marked by terrorism, state neglect and armed conflicts. That year, a Tuareg rebellion started in northern Mali and President Amadou Toumani Touré was ousted in a military coup. Constitutional rule was suspended. Rebels in northern Mali went on to seize cities like Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal, declaring an independent Islamic State of Azawad and imposing sharia law. They also destroyed cultural heritage sites, including 14 of Timbuktu’s 16 Unesco-listed mausoleums. The crisis prompted international intervention, including a UN-authorised mission, which retook northern cities within weeks.…

Jun

14

2025

By IBRAHIM Z. BAHRELDIN

Khartoum before the war: the public spaces that held the city together

HEADLINES, THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

WHAT makes a public space truly public? In Khartoum, before the current conflict engulfed Sudan, the answer was not always a park, a plaza or a promenade. The city’s streets, tea stalls (sitat al-shai), protest sites and even burial spaces served as dynamic arenas of everyday life, political expression and informal resilience. In a recently published article, I studied 64 public spaces across pre-war Greater Khartoum, revealing a landscape far richer – and more contested – than standard urban classifications suggest. Specifically, I uncovered four classifications: formal, informal, privately owned and hybrid spaces – each alive with negotiation and everyday…

Jun

14

2025

By Mpho Rantao

When the Bubble of Whiteness Becomes the Room

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

HAVE you ever heard of the term 'white fragility'? It was coined by Dr. Robin DiAngelo in a 2011 academic paper and later expanded into a bestselling book called White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism. It refers to the defensive responses white people often exhibit when confronted with conversations about race, racism, and inequality. These reactions of denial, avoidance, minimisation, serve to maintain comfort and avoid the discomfort of acknowledging racial injustice. In curated spaces—be they art institutions, award shows, or national policy—this fragility is often disguised as “neutrality” or "universalism". Tyler, The Creator…

Jun

13

2025

By JAN POSPISIL

Is Sudan’s war the reason for South Sudan’s economic crisis? What’s really going on with oil revenue

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE civil war in Sudan between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which began in April 2023, has had an impact on its neighbours. One of the most keenly affected countries is South Sudan, which became an independent state in 2011 and went on to endure its own civil war. This ended in 2018 with a tenuous peace agreement. The impact of the Sudanese war on South Sudan, however, isn’t a straightforward spillover catastrophe. The picture is more nuanced, and this is most clearly seen in South Sudan’s oil economy. Jan Pospisil, who has studied the dynamics in…

Jun

12

2025

By SCOTT FIRSING

5 benefits Africa’s new space agency can deliver

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE African Space Agency was officially inaugurated in Cairo’s Space City in April 2025. The event marked a milestone in a process that had been in the works since the early 2000s. Drawing inspiration from the European Space Agency, it unites African Union (AU) member states to harness space technology for development. This is in line with the AU’s Agenda 2063, aimed at advancing Africa into a prosperous future. The agency’s goal is to: Coordinate and implement Africa’s space ambitions by promoting collaboration among the AU’s 55 member states Harness space technologies for sustainable development, climate resilience and socio-economic growth…

Jun

11

2025

By PHILIP HARRISON; GRAEME GOTZ; LORENA NUNEZ CARRASCO and RASHID SEEDAT

Johannesburg’s problems can be solved – but it’s a long journey to fix South Africa’s economic powerhouse

HEADLINES, THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

SOUTH African President Cyril Ramaphosa met senior leaders of Johannesburg and Gauteng, the province it’s located in, in March 2025 to discuss ways to arrest the steep decline in South Africa’s largest city. Ramaphosa announced a two-year-long presidential intervention to tackle some of the city’s most pressing issues. It is to be led by the Presidential Johannesburg Working Group with eight cross-governmental and multi-stakeholder workstreams. Johannesburg was established 130 years ago, where the world’s largest-ever gold deposits were discovered. It grew rapidly in the early 20th century and became the country’s economic heartland and largest population centre. Like all South…