Q-MHI Africa Weekly Brief ;

Happy New Year, Q-MHI Africa readers!

THE YEAR THAT WAS

We’re all still catching up with analyzing and assessing what kind of year 2017 was for us as individuals and as a collective. These photos capture Africa’s 2017:

January :

Donald Trump came to the US presidency deeply skeptical about the place of Africa in US foreign policy

February :

Anti-immigrant protests against Nigerians, Zimbabweans, and Somalis rocked Pretoria

March :

As a cash crisis loomed in Zimbabwe

April :

the attacks on Egypt’s Coptic Christians and the issue of African migrants

May:

Protests against president Jacob Zuma gained momentum in South Africa

June:

Sports continue to hold a central spot in African societies

July:

Emmanuel Macron, who has amped his engagement with Africa since he was elected

August:

Both Kenya and Rwanda held elections in August

September:

Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA)

October:

 Somali children assist other civilians and security forces in their Saturday’s blast, in Mogadishu, Somalia, Sunday.

November:

A never-before-seen image on Zimbabwean television

December:

The newly elected African National Congress (ANC) President, Cyril Ramaphosa

Targeted internet shutdowns

For Africa it was another fascinating year of stories of major progress, some setbacks, hope and new beginnings. A few of our year-end reviews have caught up with the books we read, the photos that captured the year’s stories and the impact of digital platforms(and access to such platforms) on everything from elections to policy-making.

For Q-MHI Africa, it’s been another great year with highlights including our World Economic Forum panel of Africa Innovators in Durban in May and our African startup session on the fringes of UN General Assembly at our New York offices in September. Our stories of the year are below.

As a team, we’ve been heartened by the many regular and kind notes of support, suggestions and encouragement from readers and partners for our work. Your feedback has been invaluable via email, Twitter and Facebook. The Africa Weekly Brief was the fastest growing of Q-MHI many excellent newsletters in 2017. The team, Abdi Latif Dahir, Lily Kuo (Nairobi), Lynsey Chutel (Johannesburg) and Yomi Kazeem (Lagos), our many outstanding freelance contributers and myself are grateful and privileged to know you’re reading regularly. We aspire to do bigger, better and more ambitious things with our coverage in 2018.

— Yinka Adegoke, Q-MHI Africa editor

STORIES FROM THIS YEAR

China in Africa, continued to be one of the most fascinating narratives to follow in 2017. We visited South Africa and spoke to local Chinese entrepreneurs who were talking about leaving as the local economy struggled. In DR Congo we met former textile artisans who said the impact of Chinese entrepreneurs’ arrival is linked to the collapse of a once booming local textile industry. In Kenya, the country’s largest infrastructure project in 50 years, the $3.2 billion Nairobi-Mombasa rail was opened with significant Chinese help. China’s enthusiastic support of African infrastructure development is not without its challenges even though it’s part of its broader One Belt One Road ambitions. Not every project goes well. A Chinese-built bridge in Kenya collapsed just two weeks after the president inspected it. A visit to South Sudan also showed how China’s role in the world’s youngest country is comprehensive but not delivering on the usual promise of “win win”.

For some observers, China’s increasing role in Africa is the flip side of the United States’ retreat. The Trump administration didn’t get off to a good start when a leaked internal White House questionnaire revealed a surprising amount of indifference and ignorance about African issues. We helped answer some of those questions. It never really got better from there with some African countries swept up in the “Muslim ban”, a threat to key aid programs and an unclear US-Africa policy. Trump’s early gaffes and speech style didn’t help—even when much of what he was saying was in broad consensuswith many Africa watchers.

Much like Donald Trump’s 2016 election shook things up in the US,several key elections in Africa shook things up for better or for worse. There was change early on in The Gambia as president Yahya Jammeh finally left office in January after 22 years, two months after elections that voted him out. There were no surprises as Rwanda re-elected president Paul Kagame, even as the 99% electoral mandate raised eyebrows. But there was change via the ballot box in Angola where João Lourenço became Angola’s third president, after the 38-year rule of José Eduardo dos Santos, who had voluntarily stepped down. Kenya’s August presidential election results were annulled by its Supreme Court after a challenge from the opposition. The repeat vote in October saw the reelection of president Uhuru Kenyatta, under a bit of a cloud after opposition candidate Raila Odinga refused to contest.

One of the biggest stories in world politics was the fall of Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe after 37 years as the military stepped in to prevent the Grace Mugabe faction taking over the ruling party, Zanu PF. He was replaced by president Emmerson Mnangagwa.

South Africa‘s ruling party ANC spent much of 2017 dealing with the failings of president Jacob Zuma, in particular the widening fallout from the 2016 State Capture/Guptas corruption story which brought down a major British PR firm and embarrassed others. The ANC will be hoping for a new chapter with the election of Cyril Ramaphosa as party leader.

As well as corruption and political uncertainty, much of the angst in South Africa in 2017 was reserved for the struggling economy. But it started to recover from a technical recession in the second quarter as did Nigeria after a five-quarter long recession. Nigeria’s president Buhari, who spent 154 days abroad on medical leave, finally returned in August and tried to get his hit and miss anti-corruption campaign back on track. We also took a deep dive into how Africa’s richest man, Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, has taken advantage of overly generous subsidies from his country’s government which have helped buffer and build his international empire.

Neither of Africa’s big two economies were expected to be strong performers in 2017. Q-MHI was in Abidjan to interview the vice president of Côte d’Ivoire, one of those expected strong performers. While the economy faces several economic and political challenges, the VP reiterated his government’s focus on attracting international investors to help solve an infrastructure deficit problem. One performer not on our list, was Ethiopia, which is facing seriouspolitical challenges but has so far continued to be one of the world’s fastest growing economies.

For 2018 there will be some concern about the chances of a debt crisis being triggered in some countries who have piled on too much debt. In our exclusive interview with IMF chief, Christine Lagarde, she warns this a very real possibility.

Like the rest of world, bitcoin was a real attraction for several African countries, but for a number of practical reasons and not just as a fanciful investment. In fact we saw its value soaring in Zimbabwe long before the rest of the world. Fintech in general continued to be one of the driving engines for pulling in investor dollars for African startups particularly in the leading hubs, Lagos, Nairobi and Cape Town.

African Innovation remained at the heart of so many of our stories in 2017. The stories touched on everything from digitizing agriculture, reinventing education, supporting and reimagining startups, changing healthcare and boosting e-commerce for local markets. We also showcased the work of leading African innovation thinkers including Strive Masiyiwa and the late Calestous Juma.

CHART OF THE YEAR

Migration and Africa’s population growth. Africa will be home to more than half of the world’s population growth in 30 years and global leaders like Nigeria’s former president Obasanjo warn Africa could pay a steep price. Population growth is a key part of the African migration story (another key feature is climate change). Until recently, the highest profile migration stories were of African migrants drowning while trying to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa to Europe. But those images got upended in 2017 by CNN video of African migrants being traded like “slaves” in Libyan markets. It sparked international outrage as well as claims of hypocrisy and complicity. In terms of the free movement of African people, more African governments are learning to make it easier for fellow Africans to visit. And some young African elite graduates see this time of tighter visa restrictions in advanced economies as an opportunity to return home and contribute.

OTHER THINGS WE LIKED IN 2017

The Zambian “Afronaut” who wanted to join the space race. Edward Mukuka Nkoloso was a Zambian secondary school teacher of Latin, science and math. But at the height of the Cold War, he launched the Zambian Space Program with a dozen aspiring teenage astronauts, and promised to beat the United States and Russia to the moon. As novelist Namwali Serpell asks in The New Yorker, was Nkoloso unfairly mocked?

What does it mean to be poor, gifted and black in South Africa?In South Africa, students of color still struggle with the long-lasting effects of apartheid, because education, like society, still confers advantage on white people. More than two decades after the end of apartheid, Monica Mark of BuzzFeed went to meet students and teachers who had spent the past year protesting for the right to a free and fair education.

Fleeing Boko Haram, thousands cling on a road to nowhere.National Route 1 is a road in Niger than ends abruptly, connecting to nothing more but desert. But as Dionne Searcey and Adam Ferguson document in the New York Times, over 130,000 refugees chased by the terrorist group Boko Haram have come to the road in search of food, water and a safe place to stay.

The amazing story of the book smugglers of Timbuktu. In March 2012, a military coup in Mali gave jihadists from the al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb the opportunity to slip in and take a hold of the historic city of Timbuktu. In this Guardian excerpt from his book, Charlie English writes about the librarians who saved the manuscripts from the golden age of Timbuktu in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Bidding the CFA Franc monetary system adieu. In 1945, General Charles de Gaulle created the CFA franc currency to integrate the African states under French colonial rule—which is still used by Francophone countries till today. On the Africa at LSE blog, Ndongo Samba Sylla argues that the currency is a “colonial relic” and “an anachronism demanding orderly and methodical elimination.”

The world’s longest river is sick—and getting sicker. Battered by population growth and climate change, the Nile river is crumbling and impacting lives for the worse. Traveling along the river from Ethiopia to Egypt, Peter Schwartzstein writes in the BBC about how the death of the river could trigger a regional conflict.

What happens when Kenyan politicians switch from speaking English. As Kenya goes through a tense electioneering time, politicians have been out in the public speaking English, Swahili, Sheng slang, or local languages. But the shift in languages aren’t just simple, writes Nanjala Nyabola in African Arguments, and hold significant consequences for Kenya’s political discourse.

The unravelling of Nigeria’s security establishment. In this deep dive for The Republic, Chris Ngwodo examines the numerous security threats across Nigeria, from Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen to Niger Delta militants and Biafra secessionists and many others in between. Ngwodo argues these have become existential threats for a country whose political establishment and security forces are ill-equipped to overcome the challenges.

KEEP AN EYE ON

Mboka Festival of Arts, Culture and Sport (Jan. 6-20) The Gambia’s annual literary, book and visual art fair is back, offering participants from across the continent the opportunity to explore the ‘new dawn’ in the West African country.

Q-MHI Africa 

Q-MHI Daily Brief-Weekend edition;

Good morning, Q-MHI readers!

You’ve read the year-in-review pieces that proliferate around the internet in late December. You know this year was filled with unprecedented shifts and shocks around the world—from Trump to Macron, from events in Pyongyang to the tragedy of the Rohingya, from the solar eclipse to #MeToo, from NFL protests to the Charlottesville riots, and the Puerto Rico tragedy. Meanwhile, the crises of 2016—war in Syria, millions of all but forgotten refugees in Yemen and South Sudan, random small-scale terror attacks from ISIL-infected young men—have hardly receded from view.

Take a deep breath. And let go.

The world has seen a lot of terrible years, as Slate explained, back when everyone thought 2016 was the worst year in history. (Remember that?) The start of two world wars, economic crashes, hunger panics, empires and nations collapsed, scandals overtaking society, not to mention the usual famine, strife, disease and death—none of it’s new.

And we’re still here. Humans, and humanity, aren’t gone from the planet yet. And our greatest works of art, literature and culture were created in the margins over these same millennia.

Realize that we live in an era where news rockets around the globe in seconds, and bad news in particular comes with social media booster rockets. Yes, there are big, scary things, like the prospect of accidental nuclear war, that could wipe us out. But it’s no one’s moral obligation to martyr their emotional well-being in order to be plugged into the minute-by-minute developments of the goings-on of nearly 8 billion people. We can’t have empathy for the plight of our neighbors if we don’t first have empathy for ourselves.

As a Q-MHI reader, you know that among our core beliefs is that a more connected world can bring progress and benefit for all (and that it should be reported on with fairness and accuracy). But we also write a fair amount on how we need to take care of ourselves—our relationships, our families, our careers, and our mental and physical well-being. This is doubly true for those of our readers who work to try to change the world for the better. You’re no good to anyone if you’re an emotional wreck. As my colleagues in the news media know, it’s been a tough year to feel good about the topics we’re covering every day, even if we feel more determined than ever to cover them with accuracy and insightful analysis.

We hope you can take a few days around the New Year to rest, recharge, calibrate, and re-energize yourself for the months ahead, and whatever they may bring us. There’s a community of people who depend on each of us—and whom we depend on in turn—to enjoy good times with, and to support each other through the difficult ones. By taking care of ourselves, we’ll be better equipped, in 2018, to take care of each other. And that can make all the difference in the world.— (Paul Smalera Q-MHI).

SIX THINGS ON Q-MHI WE ESPECIALLY LIKED

A nobel prize-winning economist thinks we’re looking at inequality all wrong. Inequality isn’t the cause of social and political patterns, but a symptom of processes—some good, some bad—that drive the global economy. What we should actually investigate is which types of inequality are fair, and which aren’t. Preeti Varathan takes a look at the policies and choices that drive America’s inequality, and how the America’s unfairness grew out its dysfunctional economy.What’s unfair :

Healthcare financing. Each year, the US wastes a trillion dollars ($8,000 per family) more than other wealthy nations on healthcare costs, with worse outcomes. Mergers. Many industries, like tech, media, and healthcare, are now run by a few, large companies. But mergers rarely boost the wages of workers.The sluggish federal minimum wage. The federal minimum wage, at $7.25 an hour, hasn’t budged since 2009.Diminishing worker power. Twenty percent of workers sign non-compete clauses, which prevent them from taking on side-hustles, reducing their incomes and bargaining power.The rise of temps. Companies are increasingly replacing full-time, salaried workers with contractors.The growth of the stock market. While the stock market rewards innovation, it also incentivizes companies to shuffle resources from labor to capital.Corporate wins in politics. “We have entered a period of regulatory bonfires,” writes Deaton.(Deaton takes heart from these problems).

We did a semi-terrifying but worthwhile workplace experiment.CEOs, entrepreneurs, and executive coaches have recommended writing personal user manuals—guides to your work style, communication preferences, and values—as a shortcut to finding team harmony. Our Q-MHI at Work team tried it. Some of its members found the exercise of explaining their communication styles, weaknesses, and values to one another deeply uncomfortable. Others wished everyone had shared more. Everyone came away with a new understanding of themselves and their teammates. Read our summary of the experiment here.

The “chemical imbalance” explanation for depression is a myth. Thirty years ago Prozac was approved to treat depression, ushering in the modern era of antidepressants. Yet we still don’t know how Prozac, or other drugs designed to adjust brain chemicals, produce changes in mood and behavior. That might not be a problem if we were certain these drugs actually worked to alleviate depression. But we don’t. Olivia Goldhill unravels how the public came to believe in the false narrative of “chemical imbalance,” and explains how it holds back efforts to treat depression, a growing global public health epidemic.

What the memes distracting China in 2017 mean. Even as the country steps into a more central role on the world stage, Echo Huang and Zheping Huangwrite, its citizens are expressing widespread anxiety online, with a thermos, yes a thermos, as one of the unlikely vessels for some of those fears.

The 24 best Q-MHI Ideas stories of 2017. Ideas articles are usually (but not always) written by outside contributors, and they tend to take a deep dive into an aspect of our world—or a new way of thinking about it—that gives readers a deeper understanding, beyond whatever story or angle is dominating the day’s headlines. Juicero. Nazi punching. Conscious consumerism. Leggings. It’s all here, and it’s all fantastic, if we do say so ourselves.

The best books Quartz read in 2017. Whether you’re in the mood for a dystopian page-turner or literary nonfiction about the lives of trees and the people who love them, you’re sure to find a solid recommendation in Quartz’s year-end list. And don’t miss the reading recommendations from Quartz India, which include books about headhunting tribes, literary modernism, and the histories of 100 quintessentially Indian objects.a few suggestions from our staff:

FICTION : The Power, by Naomi Alderman (2017), The Three-Body Problem, by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu (2014),The End of Days, by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Susan Bernofsky (2014),Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders (2017),Get in Trouble: Stories, by Kelly Link (2015),I Am, by Jonathan Safran Foer (2016),The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen (2015),Raven Stratagem (book 2 in the Machineries of Empire series), by Yoon Ha Lee (2017),Norwegian Wood, by Haruki Murakami, translated by Jay Rubin (2000),Matterhorn, by Karl Marlantes (2010),Manto: Selected Short Stories, by Saadat Hasan Manto, translated by Aatish Taseer (2012),Mr. Fox, by Helen Oyeyemi (2011).

NONFICTION : Lab Girl, by Hope Jahren (2016),The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, by Bessel Van der Kolk (2014),A Moonless, Starless Sky: Ordinary Women and Men Fighting Extremism in Africa, by Alexis Okeowo (2017),German Business Plants, by Frederik Busch (2018),The Songs of Trees: Stories from Nature’s Great Connectors, by George David Haskell (2017),Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius, by Ray Monk (1990),The History of White People, by Nell Irvin Painter (2010),Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, by Jon Meacham (2012),Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman, by Anne Helen Petersen (2017),Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman, by Anne Helen Petersen (2017),Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself—While the Rest of Us Die, by Garrett M. Graff (2017).

The best books Quartz India read in 2017: 

Pukka Indian by Jahnvi Lakhóta Nandan,City of Djinns A Year in Delhi by William Dalrymple,Political Violence in Ancient India by Upinder Singh,How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish,The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut Jr,A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry,Arun Kolatkar and Literary Modernism in India by Laetitia Zecchini,Army and the Nation by Steve I Wilkinson,Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Tales of Extraordinary Women by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo,The Konyaks Last of the Tattooed Headhunters by Phejin Konyak,Incarnations by Sunil Khilnani.

FIVE THINGS ELSEWHERE THAT MADE US SMARTER

Don’t believe everything you see on TV. On the Dr. Phil Show, an American television institution, psychologist Phil McGraw has been providing life advice to guests for over 15 years. A two-part investigation by Stat and the Boston Globe found there may be something rotten with the show’s addiction segments. Guests allege that not only were they barred from bringing their doctors or nurses to the show’s taping, once there, show employees would facilitate their purchase of drugs and alcohol, in some cases even driving them to skid row to score. In the meanwhile, the show allegedly has a new pay-for-play policy: An addiction recovery program launched this year by McGraw and his son offer a spot on the show if you buy their self-help video products.

Sarah Katz was haunted by what she saw while reviewing as many as 8,000 posts a day for Facebook.

There are real people reviewing the disturbing things we flag on social media. At the end of a year when fake news, violence and extremism, and child-exploitation videos pervaded social networks, Lauren Weber, and Deepa Seetharaman at the Wall Street Journal (paywall) took an important look at the humans tasked with reviewing and removing this offensive material. The fast-growing tech job takes a serious emotional toll on those hired to do it.

GIFs as global culture. GIFs are wordless, so they readily travel around the globe. Amanda Hess and Quoctrung Bui, writing for the New York Times, analyzed GIF trends worldwide to see how different cultures represent anger, sadness, love, and other emotions. Mexicans express anger using, of all things, an Egyptian commercial that “features a panda wreaking havoc on an office.” In Italy, anger is Wario, a Japanese video game character, clapping sarcastically. This list is long and insightful.

It took three and a half years for a Mississippi boy to get mental health care. Tyler Haire was locked up for attacking his girlfriend’s father with a knife, a crime he called into 911 himself, and one he didn’t remember committing. A Mississippi judge ordered that he undergo a mental exam. Instead he rotted in a prison. And remarkably, according to Sarah Smith at ProPublica, what happened next was even worse.

Why birds rule. They thrive all over the planet, in places where little else can live. They are more like us than we may realize, as homemakers, vacationers, and puzzlers. Yet they are magnificent in ways we can only dream. They can fly, Jonathan Franzen explains in National Geographic, and that makes all the difference.

Q-MHI