Author: Dr Emmanuel Matambo

This piece will seek to put into context South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s initial silence over the SARS crisis in Nigeria, and how it represents a quandary between Nigeria and South Africa whose basis was established more than twenty years ago. For the last two weeks, the world has witnessed how protests against the excesses of Nigeria’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) have spiralled into violence and a 24-hour curfew that is redolent of the country’s unfortunate history with military governance. There have been contrasting stories about the extent of the violence and the number of deaths. António Guterres, the United…

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In almost a year from now, on 12 August 2021, Zambia will be holding what could be a watershed election for several reasons, ranging from the economic future of the country, the fate of three decades of relatively stable democracy and rule of law. Zambia is experiencing a precipitous contraction in economic growth aggravated by natural, political and economic disasters. Natural factors such as droughts have had an adverse impact on electricity generation. On the economic front, the reality is desperate; in 2019, real GDP growth slowed to 2%, down from 4.0% in 2018. Debt accumulation has compounded the country’s…

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On 22 May 2020, I wrote an opinion piece in which I described the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as “an enervated club of gentlemen, living coddled and cosseted lives at the top of oppressed and cowed citizens.” Before calling SADC “a feckless and cowardly body”, I asked whether it is necessary to have regional bodies that do nothing more than make pronunciations that they have no appetite and time to actualize. What provoked the trenchant piece is SADC’s time-honoured tendency to close ranks and opt for state-level tranquillity at the expense of ordinary SADC citizens.  At the time of…

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Ethiopia is convulsing with national problems that will test the mettle of Abiy Ahmed’s administration. The country also faces a fraught situation emanating from problems with Egypt and Sudan over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd). It is politic to look at the circumstances surrounding the genesis of the current administration, as it would give perspective to the gravity of the current quandary confronting Abiy. His accession to the position of Prime Minister elicited widespread acclaim, in both Ethiopia and outside the country. When commenting on Ethiopian politics, it is almost unavoidable to mention the ethnic element – which has…

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The African Development Bank (AfDB) has released a revision of its January 2020 African Economic Outlook. The subtitle of the initial 2020 Outlook, “Africa’s economy forecast to grow despite external shocks”, was characteristic of a buoyant continent that had achieved 2.4 per cent economic growth in 2019. In fact, at the beginning of 2019, projections were that Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic growth would peak at 3.4 per cent, rising to 3.7 per cent in 2020. A granular analysis showed figures that are more impressive because the 3.4 per cent prediction was mainly due to sluggish growth in the continent’s economic heavyweights – Angola, Nigeria…

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The election of Lazarus Chakwera as President of Malawi is a cause for celebration, for multiple reasons. One reason is that the nullification of the May 2019 disputed election demonstrated a rare feat of judicial independence under duress from an incumbent government. This was only the second time that a Sub-Saharan court annulled an election and called for a rerun. The other time was in Kenya after the Supreme Court annulled the 2017 presidential vote. What makes Malawi’s re-election interesting is that the opposition alliance managed to comprehensively defeat and hence unseat an incumbent government that had ‘won” the discredited…

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On Monday, 22 June 2020, some notable young people in Zambia staged a protest in an undisclosed location, lamenting Zambia’s multiple woes. Before the protest, the youth had sought legal channels for protest, but the government made it clear that those channels were not open to the would-be protesters. Influential members of the ruling Patriotic Front, starting with the president, had sounded ominous warnings about the planned the protest. Bowman Lusambo, the Minister of Lusaka, has dismissed the leading protesters as “disgruntled” people who know next to nothing about governance On the appointed date, the government sent police forces into…

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Pierre Nkurunziza’s unforeseen death is as baffling as the recent politics of the country he led for the last 15 years. In his 15 years of power, the biggest redeeming feature of Nkurunziza’s legacy is his surprising announcement that he would not seek re-election in the May 2020 elections. It is also telling that this announcement caught many by surprise. This is because, in a continent where those who occupy power are loathed to relinquish it and are not above changing constitutions to extend their incumbency, Nkurunziza’s offer to resign as president was indeed an irregularity. His death, reportedly because…

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The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in the United States has provoked widespread protests and revived the “Black Lives Matter” fervour. I don’t think there is any gainsaying that systemic racism is America’s original sin. It is admirable that Africans have been appalled by Floyd’s ordeal and murder because they vicariously feel the pain and spectre of Africa’s past at the hands of colonial racists. But, there is something even more troubling than the ill-treatment of people of colour by the white race: That is the devaluing of black lives by black people. Black people seem to have imbibed…

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Last week I wrote a commentary about the worrying circumstances surrounding Burundi’s run-up to the 20 May 2020 elections. Burundi’s tragic history has been mainly blighted my military leadership, identity strife and an exodus of refugees. Melchior Ndadaye’s democratic government in 1993 was swiftly snuffed out by the army, and the ensuing events plunged the country into civil war. From a history of what could be termed as chronic instability, Pierre Nkurunziza’s presidency from 2005 appears comparatively calm. However, it was a calm that was enforced through state-sponsored terror. Suppression of civil rights has been the main feature in that country, perpetrated…

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Africans ought to spare a thought for Burundi; the country is in political turmoil, and it will probably pay in terms of lives and political stability. The superstitious among us might think as though Burundi is cursed. Pierre Nkurunziza’s damaging reign as president is ending; nominally, this is cause for cautious optimism. However, current circumstances will probably jeopardize what was supposed to be a modest move for the better. Elections are set to take place on 20 May 2020. I am sure the opposition in Burundi found themselves in a very disturbing quandary; would they suggest a postponement of the…

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28 April 2020 marked the 96th birthday of Zambia’s founding president, Kenneth Kaunda (informally and affectionately called KK). Born in Lubwa, in what was then called Northern Rhodesia, he was the lastborn son of missionaries from modern-day Malawi. Kenneth Kaunda has lived a life that many admire but very few could have survived. His young years were shaped by the religious piety of his parents, who were the first African missionaries of the Livingstonia Mission of Nyasaland (later called Malawi). Kaunda lost his father when he was 8 and, for some time, the dominant father-figures of his life were missionaries,…

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When John Pombe Magufuli was elected President of Tanzania in 2015, there was widespread frenzy and optimism, inspired by his seemingly pragmatic brand of politics. Magufuli was also praised for his austere measures regarding government spending. Fiscal prudence is a practice that a lot of African leaders can emulate because, despite being the poorest continent, Africa is notorious for splurging finances on initiatives that only serve gluttonous regimes and their adherents. As Magufuli approaches the end of his first term, it is fair that we appraise his last five years in power and ascertain whether or not he still warrants…

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It is considered as a self-evident fact that every crisis carries within it the twin components of both danger and opportunity. The spread of the coronavirus could be an instructive watershed that the African Union can use to demonstrate its mettle not on African but global affairs, too. With 1.5 million cases of COVID-19 globally, any suggestion that there could be a silver lining to this calamity might seem morbid. I continue to argue that, ultimately, stemming the tide of COVID-19 will require, at the basic level, personal discipline and, at the institutional level, inspiring leadership. The World Health Organization (WHO) through…

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On 27 March 2020, Thandika Mkandawire, a Malawian professor of economics, died in Stockholm. With COVID-19 dominating global attention and headlines, it is understandable that Mkandawire’s death has gone by with less than deserving recognition. Worrying still is the possibility that many African intellectuals and leaders do not know the ideas, let alone try to adopt them, of Mkandawire. I am one of the unfortunate academic neophytes that never had the opportunity to meet Professor Mkandawire. The only chance I got to communicate with him was through email when I was doing my honours studies circa 2013. I was enamoured…

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There is an apocryphal argument that Abraham Lincoln once said: “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” Whether or not Lincoln uttered those words, which is highly unlikely, the words seem apt in a time when humankind is threatened by a marauding disease and people do not only hope to be saved by medical science but to be reassured, and even consoled, by their leaders. Leaders like Donald Trump have demonstrated comical vacillations and confusion in their clamour to comprehend COVID—19. The saving grace that Trump has is that he is…

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That COVID-19 will be on the ascent in the near future seems probable if not inescapable. In the face of a crisis of such serious global proportions, one would expect that the two biggest economies in the world, the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China, would be the voices of reason, consequence, and counsel as we grapple to contain a menacing difficulty. Alas, that is not the case. The temperament of the current American administration and that of China seems to be dangerously unhelpful considering the threat that now imperils the world. Some people cannot help…

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Much has been written and said about the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The World Health Organization (WHO) has finally characterized it as a pandemic. The characterization comes after the number of cases rose to more than 118,000, in 114 countries claiming 4,291 lives. This piece focuses on the political and economic consequences and the demands that the spread of COVID-19 foists on the African continent. Its opinion and perspective are modeled on the unlikely figure of Jürgen Klopp, a German soccer manager currently in charge of Liverpool Football Club in England. Asked by a journalist about whether he was worried…

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Africa has one seemingly terminal disease and, no, it is not coronavirus. Bad leadership has been the most formidable impediment to Africa’s development. I have heard cynics say that God gave Africans everything except good leaders. Bad leadership comes in numerous forms, ranging from authoritarianism, unresponsive governance, corruption to the retention of power beyond constitutional permission. The latest and current attempt of an African leader to extend his power comes from Guinea’s President Alpha Condé. When Condé became president in 2010, he was the first freely elected president in Guinea and, with that feat, his country joined the ranks of…

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Even though South Sudanese president Salva Kiir has reconfigured his government, incorporating his principal nemesis, Riek Machar, as his first vice president, one among a total of five vice presidents, the prospects for lasting peace in South Sudan remain doggedly remote. After a long battle with the Khartoum-based government, South Sudan emerged on 9 July 2011 as the world’s newest nation. However, just two years after its establishment, in December 2013 the country was plunged into civil war, courtesy of the fissures that started right at the top. A cursory analysis reveals that the underlying problem was ethnic in character, pitting President Kiir,…

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In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Africa and China (2008) Kweku Ampiah and Sanusha Naidu opine that the growing international affinity “between China and Africa could be one of the most important developments in the international relations of the Post-Cold War era.” A number of reasons account for this close relationship. Apart from China’s allure as an erstwhile victim of Western and foreign domination, akin to Africa’s colonial history, and its stupendous economic growth, China’s foreign policy principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, has been an endearing characteristic to Africa. Through this principle and other forms of…

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At the global level, the eyes of the world are trained on the tension between Iran and the United States of America, a consequence of Iran’s duplicity and America’s knee-jerk, irascible and impulsive foreign policy since Donald Trump became president. Predictably, the oncoming US election in November 2020 has also claimed global attention. In Africa, the Libyan crisis is enjoying a lot of attention because Khalifa Haftar, an unabashed warlord who is humoured by powerful Arab allies like Egypt, is threatening to usurp the position of the Government of National Accord, a structure that is recognised by the United Nations.…

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