Taiwan is an also-ran in the derby for Africa by Richard Poplak In geopolitics, as in a Saturday at the track, sometimes you back the wrong horse. Consider the case of the Republic of China (ROC aka Taiwan) and the Republic of South Africa, circa the 1970s and ‘80s. Those were the good old days, when the apartheid regime, the pre-democratic Taiwanese government and Israel formed a cosy nuclear troika, trading technology, know-how and materiel. In 1980 Taiwan agreed to send South Africa over 4,000 tonnes of uranium for a weapons program designed to make the Cubans in Angola think…
Richard Poplak
Eritrea is a paradox, a country that dips vertiginously from the mountains into the sea, from mellow temperate Asmara, the capital, to the scorching coastal port of Massawa. On the capital’s boulevards, fashionistas rock Afros and skinny jeans while espresso machines roar in the cafés. Asmara is a modernist wonderland. But behind these tired, beautiful buildings lurks a secret, shadow world. And one does not have to amble too far down the capital’s Harnet Avenue to find its locus. Eritrea’s Ministry of Justice, an imposing sunset-yellow structure on Asmara’s main boulevard, is one of many exemplary structures of rationalist…
Mozambique’s Renamo From rebel group to political party and back again: Renamo’s recidivism defies the sunny prognostications of the “Africa Rising” narrative by Richard Poplak For decades, it seemed as if the Mozambican civil war, which raged from 1977 to 1992, was resolutely over. While the ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) enjoyed a lock on power, its arch-rival, the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), was not disbanded in bloody recrimination following defeat. Rather, Renamo has enjoyed official opposition status in Maputo, many thousands of kilometres from its Gorongosa game park stronghold in the country’s distant hinterland. Recently, however,…
Nearly a decade after the end of the bloody civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), violence remains endemic. In one corner of the DRC’s infamous north- east, a large-scale mining project has built a public-private partnership to create a secure and prosperous environment for people and business. Close your eyes and form a picture of the world’s most defiled war zone—a place where people and property are routinely hacked by pangas and aerated by AK47 gunfire. Chances are, you have the north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in mind—Planet Earth’s violent, misbehaving urchin; the centre of War…
Nigeria: film and politics Africa’s largest cultural industry gives voice to upwardly mobile strivers Want a feel-good story about an African middle class with a Hollywood ending? It is set in Nigeria, the continent’s biggest country by population, brashest by reputation and ballsiest by self-conception. Outside its borders, Nigeria is defined by Boko Haram hashtag campaigns, imploding mega-churches and the occasional piece about political dysfunction. But as an entity (“country” does not quite fit the description), led by the unloved Goodluck Jonathan and his People’s Democratic Party (PDP), it marches toward a general election in 2015, and into a future…
South African industry To revive its manufacturing sector, Africa’s largest economy needs to bridge the gap between labour, industry and government Africa, so the story goes, makes nothing except holes in the ground. And while extractive industries drive economies across the continent, they do not produce the sort of employment figures that make for sustainable growth. In South Africa, the continent’s largest and most diversified economy, a yawning lacuna between industry, labour and government is not just curbing manufacturing but promises to swallow the entire nation. This chasm was plainly in evidence during a forum held last November by Johannesburg-based…
Zimbabwe: Strive Masiyiwa The telecommunications tycoon wins with the law and God on his side “What Can Be Done Should Be Done And What Can’t Be Done…Must Be Done.” So reads part of the mission statement for the South African-based, Zimbabwean telecommunications mega-outfit Econet Wireless, a global e-buffet in which subscribers, along with making phone calls, may consume a “holistic” array of services including, according to the official website, the “core areas of internet, fixed wireless, fibre cable, satellite transmission, transaction processing services, mobile assurance and money transfer”, that make up this telecoms giant. Zimbabwe is not a rich country.…
Central African Republic’s natural resources In a country mired in violence and chaos, property laws do little to protect underground treasures from predatory interests The problem with land, or rather “space”, in the Central African Republic (CAR) becomes apparent immediately upon leaving the airport. On the apron side, where shiny planes with acronyms emblazoned on their tails wait for take-off, all is tended planters and graded asphalt. On the far side of the terminal building, Bangui begins: tens of thousands of men, women and children—all belonging to a cohort that human rights organisations term “internally displaced persons”, or IDPs. Since…
Chinese labour in Africa They are a manifestation of the globalisation that has transformed the world’s economies By Richard Poplak What exactly are we referring to when we talk about Chinese labour in Africa? Are we discussing the Asian men in overalls standing on the side of freshly paved roads in the continent’s remotest crannies? Are we musing about the men and women who sell cigarettes and laundry soap to villagers in those same forgotten places? Or are we talking about the “old Chinese” executives who run logistics companies or restaurants or nail bars in South Africa’s big cities? The…
America’s army in Africa Self-interest versus moral obligation confuses US foreign policy towards the continent General David M. Rodriguez, who heads up the United States Africa Command, or AFRICOM, is the continent’s most powerful man. He is also its most powerless. Depending on whom you believe, General Rodriguez commands the full might of the greatest military in the history of the world: he could in one awesome shock-and-awe campaign flatten the continent into a parking lot for Humvees. Or, he is a benevolent hugger of children, with no violent mandate whatsoever. These are the extremes AFRICOM engenders. Is it…
