The Africa Center

The Africa Center is hiring a Project Management Consultant to oversee three major initiatives under our recently-launched Afreximbank Global Africa Gateway. Please refer to the attached document for more information about this role and the application process.

"As the world’s foremost economic power, presidential elections in the US always carry a great sense of importance even outside of the country. While the world prepares for possible policy about-faces on a number of important issues, it is interesting to consider whether the US might adopt a new strategy towards Africa." Read our latest #PolicyPositions, written by Tunde Olatunji, here: https://lnkd.in/enTrCiT5

Mark your calendars for Thursday, October 3rd from 6:30PM to 8:00PM, as The Africa Center proudly presents The Lions’ Den: Iris Mwanza in Conversation with Namwali Serpell. This program brings together author and gender equality advocate, Iris Mwanza, and Namwali Serpell, writer and a Professor of English at Harvard University, for a compelling discussion around Mwanza’s internationally praised debut novel, The Lions’ Den. Set in the 1990s in Mwanza’s native Zambia, The Lions’ Den is about fresh-from-the-village rookie lawyer, Grace, who is given her first pro bono case to try in court. Grace is set to defend a young queer dancer, Willbess ‘Bessy’ Mulenga, who has been arrested for offenses “against nature.” Presented with a freshly beaten client, Grace protests to the police and gets barred from accessing Bessy, who then disappears from the system—and the world—without a trace. As she fights for justice for Bessy, Grace must navigate a dangerous world of corrupt politicians, traditional beliefs, and deep-seated homophobia. Register today: https://lnkd.in/ePTcFNCQ

"These African SIDS (Small Island Developing States) and Big Ocean States (BOS), with ocean territory hundreds of times the size of their landmasses, are not only dependent on a healthy ocean for their sustainable development and border the ABNJ, but also have advanced expertise in Marine Spatial Planning and together administer the world’s largest jointly managed maritime zone." Read our latest #PolicyPositions to learn more about the new Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction that presents an opportunity to not only change our ocean’s depressing trajectory but also Africa’s destiny. https://lnkd.in/eE8Tf2Nq ✍🏾: Jeremy Raguain

In our newest Policy Positions post, Jeremy Raguain proposes an urgent reconsideration of humanity’s relationship to our collective ocean resources. He examines the U.N’s recently-adopted Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) agreement with a particular focus on the importance of increased agency for stakeholders who have historically exerted little influence over how exactly these resources have been exploited. Specifically - how can coastal and Small Island Developing States in the global south be more empowered to lead on the sustainable management of these ocean waters that are so critical not only to important aspects of our climate system, but also to the livelihoods of millions around the world? https://lnkd.in/e7hF95nA

Absolutely thrilled to dive back into my writing and policy analysis roots! 🚀 Check out my first piece for The Africa Center's "Policy Positions" series, where I break down the political and economic factors behind Kenya's #RejectFinanceBill2024 and #RutoMustGo protests. Key Takeaways: - The Kenyan government downplayed the protests as merely about tax hikes, assuming withdrawing the bill would appease the public. Protesters, however, emphasised the legacy of colonialism with signs like "colonialism never ended." - The IMF has inadvertently admitted their failure to address the systemic causes of the debt crisis, despite acknowledging in their 2023 paper the excessive reliance on expenditure cuts in Sub-Saharan Africa is stifling development. - The USA plays a role in Kenya’s diminishing sovereignty, seen in Kenya’s involvement in the "War on Terror" in Somalia and deploying troops to Haiti to support the US mission. - African governments have progressive avenues for revenue generation, including targeting tax avoidance by multinationals, curbing corruption, and facilitating intra-African trade. Huge thanks to The Africa Centre, and my incredible editors Temi Ibirogba Tunde Olatunji and Uzodinma Iweala for highlighting Kenyan voices and giving me this platform to document such a pivotal moment in our history. I am sending solidarity to many Kenyans out protesting at tomorrow's #NaneNaneMarch, and to our fellow Africans standing against poor governance in Nigeria and Uganda. African leaders must heed these messages in debt, dependency and democracy. Please amplify by liking, sharing, and commenting with your thoughts! ✊🏾 🌍   https://lnkd.in/dUx6CnXW

Read our latest Policy Positions to learn more about the decades of financial policies that have directly contributed to Kenya's deepening debt crisis and what is needed for African governments to move to a future of economic sovereignty. Find the full article here: https://bit.ly/46Clbzf Written by Naila Aroni

The newest entry in our policy positions series is by Diane Enobabor, who examines the too-often dire circumstances faced by African asylum seekers arriving here in New York City. She envisions a much expanded role for grassroots and community-based actors in meeting the needs of new migrants, as well as wholesale changes to the patchwork of municipal, state and federal policies that currently fall well short of the resources and competencies required to maintain a functional asylum system in the city. https://lnkd.in/eHngy9Db

A comprehensive analysis of 1,000+ news articles reveals a troubling pattern in how the world's most influential news providers cover Africa. The analysis of 20 leading news outlets in Africa No Filter's 2024 Global Media Index for Africa exposes a persistent bias, with coverage dominated by stereotypical narratives of poverty, conflict, and corruption. Global media narratives continue to treat the continent as a monolith – where ordinary African voices are silenced, while powerful elites of experts, politicians, national leaders, and international organisations shape the discourse. 💡 “Our research provides not just a snapshot of current media practices, but a call to action for global media to critically examine their storytelling about Africa and understand its impact. The index serves as a baseline from which we can push for more nuanced and equitable media narratives. This study marks an important step towards challenging the status quo and enriching global understanding of Africa.” Read the full analysis: https://lnkd.in/dbd9AC-B

We’re pleased to announce the launch of the Global Media Index for Africa, a tool we’ve developed in partnership with Africa No Filter and researchers at the University of Cape Town to track the quality of news reporting on Africa from the 20 most circulated news publications in the world. The index examines the performance of each organization against a set of important factors–diversity of sources, topics covered, countries, and depth of coverage–to develop a comprehensive score that captures the extent to which we believe their reporting in and about Africa is representative of the realities of contemporary life on the continent. The full report is available here: https://lnkd.in/eaVSdMXi