In The News

Japan's Shinzo Abe Hails Africa as “Growth Center”

June 4, 2013
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe views Africa as a “growth centre over the next couple of decades” and advised immediate investment at a conference on African development in Japan, co-hosted with the African Union, the World Bank and the United Nations, reports BBC News. The prime minister stressed the need for industrialization in Africa, moving beyond the export of natural resources. Japan...

Tunisia Turns Up Heat on the Salafis

Roula Khalaf May 30, 2013
Salafi Muslims promote a fundamentalist interpretation of the Koran, insisting on original Arabic translations and rejecting moderate Muslims as infidels. Freedoms won in Tunisia after the 2011 Arab Spring revolution allowed Salafis to evangelize. Now the government is cracking down on the controlling ways of Ansar al-Sharia. “As elsewhere in the region, not least in Egypt, formal politics in...

The Promise of Africa

Ian Shapiro May 23, 2013
Energetic and talented leaders, intent on contributing to Africa’s rise, gathered for the World Economic Forum on Africa 2013 in early May. The WEF is an independent international organization committed to engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Africa has its share of failed or near failing states, but others are...

China's Xi Jinping Visits; Africa Asks, What Are We Getting Out of This?

Peter Ford March 27, 2013
Chinese trade with Africa has grown fourfold in six years, up to 2 million. Chinese are based there, and China’s African investments are worth near $200 billion. Still, Africans are questioning if trade is tilted too much in China’s favor, with leaders and pundits suggesting that selling off minerals and natural resources and failing to develop a manufacturing base repeats the legacy of...

Africa Told to View China as Competitor

William Wallis March 21, 2013
Nations are competitors, regardless of size, location or wealth. Lamido Sanusi, Nigeria’s central bank governor, offered that reminder to fellow Africans about China and its potential to flood the continent with low-cost goods and overwhelm a struggling manufacturing industry. “Trade between China and Africa was worth more than $200bn in 2012, 20 times what it was in 2000 when Beijing committed...

US Boosts War Role in Africa

Adam Entous, David Gauthier-Villars, Drew Hinshaw March 6, 2013
The US is providing intelligence assistance to the French in the campaign against extremists in Mali. “U.S. Reaper drones have provided intelligence and targeting information that have led to nearly 60 French airstrikes in the past week alone in a range of mountains the size of Britain, where Western intelligence agencies believe militant leaders are hiding,” reports the Wall Street Journal about...

Marketing Berbers Abroad – Avenue for Cultural Preservation?

Jonathan Gifford February 28, 2013
While globalization can have an antithetical role to the preservation of indigenous cultures, a Berlin fashion label has recently played a pivotal role in protecting a native Berber sewing technique. Andrea Kolb, founder of the fashion label Abury, says she conceived of the idea a few years ago, after friends commented enthusiastically on a Berber-made embroidered leather bag purchased on a visit...