After a 150-year absence, the annual thanksgiving festival of Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group returned to its capital this weekend.
A few minutes after 11pm on the night of June 22, Ethiopia went offline.
The move to disrupt Nairobi’s commuter transport system has hit a snag.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative is a vast transcontinental development project looking to improve connectivity among nations in Asia, Europe, and Africa. First announced by president Xi Jinping in 2013, dozens of countries have signed onto the scheme seeking to complement their infrastructural gaps, increase foreign investment, expand trade, and ultimately reduce poverty.
China’s efforts to raise the place of its literature around the world has landed in Africa.
Gabon will become the latest African nation to receive funding to preserve its rainforests to mitigate the effects of climate change. As part of a 10-year deal announced on Sunday (Sept. 22), Norway will pay $150 million to Gabon to battle deforestation and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Millions of people across the world, many of them children who skipped school, are today taking part in protests calling for action against climate change. From Australia to America, the “climate strike” day is meant to urge governments and world leaders to end the age of fossils and up their climate efforts.
The uptake of digital lending has been on the rise across Kenya, boosted by growing smartphone adoption and the availability of mobile money transfer systems like M-Pesa. With quick application turnaround, digital credit has helped borrowers pay for basic necessities like food and rent and access working capital for their enterprises.
Artificial intelligence technology is proliferating fast across the world and is being deployed in applications from speech recognition to deepfake videos and monitoring traffic congestion. It’s also increasingly being used to monitor and track citizens, according to a new report.
On Wednesday, Sept. 18, Erick Kabendera will appear once more in court.
Since its inception in 2013, opportunity and anxiety have pervaded China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The transcontinental development project has been described as a 21st century Silk Road seeking to expand trade, increase connectivity, boost foreign investment, and ultimately reduce poverty. Yet the project has also been dogged by controversy, with criticism that new infrastructural costs were burdening poor nations with debt.
South Africa is back in the news yet again for all the wrong reasons. At least 12 people were killed and hundreds arrested after mobs attacked foreign-owned shops in Johannesburg and Pretoria last week. The attacks drew condemnation from across the African continent and resulted in reprisal attacks abroad. Nigeria began evacuating some of its citizens, recalled its high commissioner, and boycotted the World Economic Forum on Africa summit in Cape Town.
The race to save the northern white rhinoceros from extinction is looking very hopeful.
Uber is hoping to expand its imprint on public transpiration in Africa’s largest city.
Dozens of African leaders trooped into Yokohama city on Japan’s Pacific coast in late August and heard prime minister Shinzo Abe promise that Japan’s private sector will invest $20 billion over three years in Africa. What’s more, said Abe, Tokyo would offer “limitless support” for investment, innovation, enterprise, and entrepreneurship, with backing from Japan’s government-backed institutions.
In this Quartz members conference call, Nairobi-based reporter Abdi Latif Dahir and Quartz Africa editor Yinka Adegoke discuss this week’s popular field guide about China’s interest, and investment, in Africa.
Africa’s largest bank wants to bring the continent’s small and informal businesses into its fold.
These four leading voices on China-Africa matters in the 21st century agreed to discuss with Quartz Africa how they each see the relationship between African countries and China evolving over the coming years. Each person has a perspective that not only helps highlight some of the more pressing issues but also contextualizes where things are headed. All answers were edited for length and format.
When it comes to generating revenue in Africa’s airspace, global carriers are the biggest winners with only two African airlines in the top 10 most lucrative air routes in Africa, a new study finds.
On Dec. 13, 2018, US national security advisor John Bolton got on a podium at the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation in Washington DC to outline the Trump administration’s new engagement policy in Africa.
China’s meteoric rise in Africa has raised a drumbeat of alarm and curiosity from across the world. Over the past two decades, there have been emerging trends and data, new policy shifts, questions about what African countries should do, and if China and the West can compete—or cooperate—in Africa. Below are some of the books, people, and institutions that can give you an in-depth insight into how China is changing Africa as much as Africa is changing China.
When Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway leaves the terminus in the coastal city of Mombasa, it pulsates north, passing through towns and over picturesque national parks to reach its final destination in the capital city of Nairobi.
These days, everybody wants a piece of Africa. In 2018 alone, France’s Emmanuel Macron made a historic visit to East Africa, becoming the first French leader to visit Kenya. Former British prime minister Theresa May busted out some awkward dance moves in South Africa, while Germany’s Angela Merkel toured Senegal and Ghana just days afterward. Russia announced plans to develop bilateral trade and set up a base along Eritrea’s coast. Even US first lady Melania Trump—decked in a pith helmet, jodhpurs, and riding boots—visited Egypt, Malawi, and other nations to highlight US humanitarian and development work.
It was a glorious homecoming that ended a turbulent week facing off with the most powerful man in America.
