Thought Leader

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In perhaps his most famous anti-imperialist essay, To the Person Sitting in Darkness Mark Twain critiques the self-evident truth of American imperial policy in Africa, China and the Philippines: “Privately and confidentially, it is merely an outside cover, gay and pretty and attractive, displaying the special pat-terns of our Civilisation which we reserve for Home…

The Beijing dragon breathes, and as it does — given that China has since become the world’s major emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2), overtaking even the gaseous US economy that has historically led the polluters pack — we expect raging fire. But even with a population in excess of 1.3 billion, China’s emissions, averaging five tonnes…

It has been called the “new Great Trek” by South Africans who remember their history. Presently, over 30-million hectares in almost 30 African countries have been auctioned to a host of corporations and governments, from China — housing one fifth of the world’s population on 8% of the world’s arable land — to oil-rich, water-poor…

For the first time since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Africa has a counterweight, and the United States a rival: China. Similar to the Russian Federation, China approaches rulers of resource-rich countries through the ethos of brothers-in-arms rather than client states. The Chinese have a word for this: “guanxi”, encompassing everything from pull to…

Come sunset, when Africa’s primary source of energy, the sun, goes down, and students pack away their books or settle to study beside candlelight, Africa truly does become the “dark continent”. Overall, the continent contributes less than 5% of global electrification, dominated by a handful of countries such as South Africa, Libya and Egypt. One…

“We cannot assure our development on our own,” stated France’s pet dictator and Africa’s longest-serving ruler Omar Bongo. The Gabonese leader was talking about national economic development, but he might just as well have been talking about his own personal economic development. Transparency International’s French chapter singled out Bongo, who died at 73 after ruling…

The water is crystalline, the sand is whiter than white, and elegantly bent palm trees sway in the breeze. This is how the Seychelles markets itself: as “another world”. Tourism is the mainstay of this heavenly island, averaging 20% of GDP and 60% of foreign exchange earnings. But given the climate crisis, prospects are dim…

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