THOUGHT LEADERSHIP - The African Mirror

Dec

13

2024

Chinese-funded enterprises in South Africa enhance unique economic development that benefits all

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

DURING his fourth state visit to South Africa last August, Chinese President Xi Jinping famously described bilateral relations between the two allies as having entered the "golden era." In September, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa reciprocated by undertaking a state visit to China, where he was received with great pomp and ceremony. The September meeting ushered in a new phase in the bilateral relations between the two countries, elevating their ties to "an all-round strategic cooperative partnership in the new era." These ties continue to yield golden opportunities for both sides. When it comes to South Africa, China truly delivers…

Dec

12

2024

By GRETCHEN BAUER and AKOSUA KESEBOA DARKWAH

Ghana’s election system keeps women out of parliament. How to change that

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

VOTERS in Ghana elected the country’s first woman vice president, Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang, in early December 2024. Voters also elected John Mahama as president, a man who had served as president before, from 2013 to 2017. In that first term as president, Mahama had also appointed the most women cabinet ministers ever in Ghana – six out of 19. But in the December parliamentary elections, women candidates barely improved upon the 2020 election result. Whereas 40 women – 20 from each of the two major parties – had been elected in 2020, only 43 women were elected in 2024…

Dec

10

2024

By FRANZISCA ZANKER and AMANDA BISONG

African migrants can drive growth in their home countries – but three barriers stand in the way

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE idea that migration is closely linked to development has long been pervasive on the African continent. The main reason for this is that migrants – those travelling from rural to urban areas, as well as across borders – send home remittances. This money helps to pay for houses, school fees, hospital visits, weddings and funerals, to name just a few of its uses. Scholars and policymakers acknowledge that remittances vastly outweigh development assistance. Take one example: in Senegal, remittances made up just over 10% of GDP in 2017, and overseas development assistance just over 4%. Remittances represent over 20%…

Dec

11

2024

By LLOYD G. ADU AMOAH

Ghana’s president John Mahama makes a comeback – what lies ahead

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

JOHN Dramani Mahama, Ghana’s incoming president, has won a chance to rewrite his legacy. He was voted out of office in 2016 by what was then the highest margin in the post-independence history of the West African nation amid corruption scandals and an energy crisis that had crippled the country. But he has made a comeback, winning 56.55% of the total valid votes cast according to the country’s Electoral Commission. It is the largest margin of victory in a Ghanaian election since 1996. Voter turnout was 60.9%. Although there has not been an official declaration of the 2024 election results…

Dec

07

2024

By LURDES CALVO

In Spain, a survivor of gender-based violence finds her voice

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

WHEN Aminata Soucko arrived in Spain from Mali she was like a prisoner. Unable to speak the language and trapped at home by a violent husband whom she had been forced to marry, Aminata was desperate and alone. “My husband was my translator. I didn’t understand anything in Spanish, and he didn’t want me to learn Spanish either,” she said. One day, she slipped out of their home in the eastern city of Valencia and bumped into a woman from Mali who helped her find a language course. That chance encounter was the start of a dramatic shift in Aminata’s…

Dec

06

2024

By THEOPHILUS ACHEAMPONG

Ghana heads to the polls: why the economy is the biggest issue for many voters

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE outcome and aftermath of Ghana’s 2024 elections will be a key test of whether the West African nation can find a balance between the dual objectives of living within its means and achieving economic growth that creates sustainable jobs for its teeming youth. Ghanaians are heading to the polls amid rising poverty and high cost of living. Ghana has been in an economic crisis since 2022 when it was forced to seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to be able to meet its payments to the rest of the world and restore the health of government finances.…

Dec

04

2024

By LAURA CARVALHO

South Africa has taken over the G20 presidency from Brazil – what lessons can it learn?

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

SOUTH Africa has taken over the presidency of the world’s premier economic forum, the G20, from Brazil. The G20 presidency operates on a troika system made up of the current, previous and next holders. The three members cooperate with one another in preparing for an annual summit. This means that South Africa will be working with Brazil and the US (2026 presidency). The G20 members – 19 countries plus the European Union and the African Union –account for about 80% of global GDP, 75% of global exports and 60% of the world’s population. The Conversation Africa asked Laura Carvalho, a…

Nov

30

2024

By JONATHAN POWELL and SALAH BEN HAMMOU

Gabon’s coup leaders have changed the constitution to entrench their power – it’s a growing trend in west Africa

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

MORE than a year after a military coup, Gabonese citizens held a referendum in which they approved a new draft constitution. The constitutional revisions targeted dynastic rule by introducing presidential term limits and banning family members of a sitting president from running for office. A controversial aspect of the new constitution is that it allows coup leader General Brice Oliqui Nguema to run for president in the country’s general presidential election slated for August 2025. Civil society and opposition figures have expressed concerns about the possibility of the general’s candidacy. They argue that it would contradict the military’s earlier promises…

Nov

28

2024

By WILLIE BURGER

Breyten Breytenbach: a masterful poet, jailed for his politics, who reimagined South Africa

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

BREYTEN Breytenbach (1939-2024) was an artist, poet, thinker and outspoken political activist who changed the literary landscape in South Africa. He died on 24 November in Paris, where he had first been exiled in the 1960s. Exploring themes of identity, exile and justice in a career spanning almost six decades, his paintings were exhibited in major galleries and he was awarded prestigious literary prizes. Breytenbach was a master of metaphor. Metaphors transcend the literal meanings of words, creating new associations and images that stir the reader’s imagination. But his metaphors leave all definitions and theories about metaphors short. By joining…

Nov

27

2024

By LLOYD G. ADU AMOAH

Ghana’s outgoing president Nana Akufo-Addo failed to live up to expectations – a look at his time in office

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

FOR the first time in seven years, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will end the year without Ghana’s presidency weighing on his shoulders. Ghana goes to the polls on 7 December. Whatever the outcome, Akufo-Addo has served two terms as president and will be retiring from a long political life. Akufo-Addo became president in 2017 with a pedigree in both modern and traditional statecraft. Three of his relatives – Edward Akufo-Addo (his father), J.B. Danquah and William Ofori-Atta – were among the architects of Ghana’s first political party, the United Gold Coast Convention. As a university student in the early 1960s,…