THOUGHT LEADERSHIP - The African Mirror

Feb

24

2026

Young Tanzanians are fed up with not getting a slice of the economic action – research

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

WHEN young Tanzanians poured into the streets on 29 October 2025, most observers saw an election protest. Protests in Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Mwanza and other cities were met with live ammunition and internet blackouts. There were hundreds of casualties, according to human rights organisations. My research suggests a deeper dynamic: a generation asserting its right to become adults. As a PhD candidate, I set out in 2020 to understand how Tanzania’s natural gas industry was shaping young people’s transitions to adulthood. My research examined two interconnected questions. How does the gas industry shape youth transitions and experiences in Mtwara,…

Feb

23

2026

By YOHANNES GEDAMU

Ethiopia and Eritrea are on edge again: what’s behind the growing risk of war

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

The histories of Eritrea and Ethiopia have long been closely intertwined. Once part of Ethiopia, Eritrea launched an armed struggle for independence in 1961 that resulted in its secession in 1993 following a referendum. But since Eritrea’s independence, relations between the two countries have evolved through many ups and downs, which include a devastating war from 1998 to 2000, followed by two decades of mutual isolation. The two countries appeared to have healed their broken relations when Eritrea’s Isaias Afwerki accepted the newly appointed Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed’s overtures for peace in 2018. Unfortunately, by early 2026, that started…

Feb

21

2026

By MUSHAGA AKILI

Fear and survival: Reflections on a year under M23 rule in Goma

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

A few weeks ago, I travelled to a cemetery in Goma where hundreds of people had been buried in mass graves after the M23 rebel group seized the city early last year. I was hoping to find people who could help me mark the anniversary of the invasion. A few metres from the graves, I met Pascal, a day labourer. He said he passes the cemetery twice daily on his way to and from the city centre. I asked if he could help me find families with loved ones buried inside. What followed was an emotional outpouring. Pascal spoke about…

Feb

20

2026

By LUISA T. SCHNEIDER

Sierra Leone’s harsh new laws to protect women and girls are causing harm in the wrong places

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

IN the decades after Sierra Leone’s civil war (1991-2002), there was pressure on the West African country to demonstrate progress on gender equality. Laws were passed to fight domestic violence, rape and teen pregnancy. But drawing on colonial legal models, the reforms don’t always match social realities and, in many cases, are harming young people from poor communities. Punishment is being made more important than resolution or education. Luisa T. Schneider is an anthropologist who has spent a decade researching the subject. We asked her about her open source book Love and Violence in Sierra Leone: Mediating Intimacy after Conflict.…

Feb

18

2026

By JOVIAL RANTAO

“I AM SOMEBODY”: Reverend Jesse Jackson, was Africa’s champion from across the waters

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE thunder has gone silent. The rainbow warrior has laid down his banner. Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson Sr., who crossed into the ancestors on Tuesday at age 84, was not merely an American civil rights leader - he was a son of Africa who never forgot where his people came from, a freedom fighter who made the struggles of this continent his own. When Nelson Mandela walked out of Victor Verster Prison on that glorious February day in 1990, among the first faces he saw waiting in Cape Town was Jesse Jackson's. The two men embraced as brothers reunited after…

Feb

18

2026

By JOVIAL RANTAO

AU Summit delivers South Sudan deal while sidestepping continental crises

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE African Union's 39th Summit produced a rare diplomatic breakthrough on South Sudan while exposing the organisation's persistent inability to address the continent's deepest crises, as leaders brokered peace commitments in one troubled nation even as wars rage unchecked across Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Sahel. The landmark six-point agreement announced Sunday commits South Sudan's government to immediate ceasefire, release of detained Vice President Riek Machar, and elections without further postponement - ending years of delays that have stretched the country's transition indefinitely. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, chairing the Committee of Five session, called it a…

Feb

17

2026

By PHUTHUMA NHLEKO

The demographic earthquake: Africa’s population boom, what it means for the continent and the world

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

A decade ago, a 700-page book that could be used as a doorstop was waved around by prominent business news anchors. Praise for the book was effusive – the most important work since Karl Marx’s Das Kapital, some said. I was intrigued. Although Thomas Piketty’s groundbreaking book – Capital in the Twenty-First Century – could be described as a rather dry read, it grabbed my attention. What lingered in my mind was neither Piketty’s complex econometric calculations nor his primary assertion that wealth concentration tends to increase over time, leading to ever greater global inequality. Rather, what startled me were…

Feb

17

2026

By JOVIAL RANTAO

Eagles, wickets, and irony: Trump’s Team USA has a funny way of being “American first”

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THERE’S something deliciously absurd happening on cricket pitches in India and Sri Lanka right now, and it has nothing to do with the rules of the game (though let's be honest, most Americans still find those baffling). The United States cricket team - yes, that's a thing - is currently competing in the T20 World Cup, and their roster reads less like a lineup from Kansas City and more like a United Nations assembly after a really successful mixer. Picture this: While ICE agents back home are busy making life miserable for anyone whose paperwork isn't pristine, Team USA is…

Feb

14

2026

By NARDOS BEKELE-THOMAS

Africa’s health economy is open for business

AUDA-NEPAD, THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

AFRICA today represents one of the most compelling opportunity frontiers of the 21st century. With rapidly growing demand, expanding markets, and accelerating innovation, our continent is increasingly positioned to convert long-standing structural challenges into engines of growth. Nowhere is this opportunity more evident - and more urgent - than in Africa's health sector. For too long, Africa's health sector has been defined solely by its unmet needs. That narrative is incomplete and outdated. Today, our health economy is defined by scale, productivity potential, and its central role in industrialisation, job creation, human capital development, and long-term economic resilience. The question…

Feb

14

2026

By JOVIAL RANTAO

ANALYSIS: Ramaphosa’s SONA: A President in touch, but can he deliver?

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

SOUTH AFRICA’S Cyril Ramaphosa's State of the Nation Address on Thursday demonstrated a leader acutely aware of South Africa's pain points, deploying the full presidential toolkit to convince a weary nation that better days lie ahead. Whether he succeeds may depend less on his diagnosis than on his government's ability to execute. On the critical test of understanding the national mood, Ramaphosa scored highly. He opened not with statistics but with the emotional resonance of the 1956 Women's March, immediately signalling he grasps that South Africans need inspiration alongside intervention. More tellingly, he confronted the nation's most visceral frustrations head-on.…