Africa

Of Africa’s modern borders were directly affected by historical political frontiers such as pre-existing African kingdoms and water bodies rather than random European colonialist decisions, claims new research published in the American Political Science Review. Researchers push back at the commonly held notion — often focused on the now infamous Berlin Conference of 1884–85 — that all African bilateral borders were drawn arbitrarily by Europeans.

While Europeans indeed knew very little about most of Africa at that time, the researchers explain that “their self-interested goals of amassing territory prompted intensive examination of on-the-ground conditions as they formed borders.” This included negotiating with African rulers to secure treaties and learn about historical state frontiers. It meant Africans were able to influence the border-formation process which has given us many of our modern borders.

An Oscar would be nice but freedom would be better

When the nominations for the 96th Academy Awards were announced on Jan. 23, something odd happened around the home of Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, better known by his stage name Bobi Wine. The security forces, which had been keeping him under house arrest, quietly disappeared.

That was because a large spotlight had been turned on after the film “Bobi Wine: The People’s President” was nominated for Best Documentary Feature Film. The People’s President was co-directed by British director Christopher Sharp, who was born in Uganda, and Moses Bwayo, a Ugandan. It follows singer-turned-politician Bobi Wine and his campaign in the run-up to the 2021 elections in which he ran against President Yoweri Museveni, who by then had been in power for 35 years. He agreed to have cameras follow him for several months. They captured the unpredictability and risks for Bobi and his wife Barbie of taking on the Ugandan establishment.

Sharp hopes the Oscar nomination will shed more light on what he points out is an autocratic government which is generally accepted by the West as democratic, despite evidence to the contrary. “We witnessed so many atrocities while filming,” Sharp told Semafor Africa. “There are so many people who get picked up and taken away, tortured, and disappear completely.”

He hopes the Oscars publicity — and particularly the attention drawn to Uganda in the United States — makes Bobi, his family, and supporters safer. “We hope the film will save lives and I genuinely think it can,” said Sharp. “It’s important to Museveni’s government, especially now there’s so much light being shone upon them, to be a bit more careful.”

But while Sharp would of course be delighted to win, he doesn’t think that would be the most important achievement. “I don’t think it matters. The amount of attention this Oscar process puts on the situation in Uganda has been fantastic,” he said. “Obviously to win would be even more attention, but we’ve really shone a light on the country. So I think the work has actually been done.”

— Yinka

Lagos gets into the arena

A consortium of investors broke ground on a proposed 12,000-capacity arena in Lagos late last month, teasing the prospect of Nigeria’s first purpose-built indoor venue for music concerts and sports events.

The project is being led by Persianas Group, a real estate investor that operates supermarket stores and shopping malls in Nigeria. Its partners include two U.S. companies — Oak View Group, and Live Nation Entertainment — and the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority. The venue is expected to cost $100 million and is set to open in December 2025.

Music is one of Nigeria’s biggest exports thanks to the country’s chart-topping Afrobeats stars. But while they sell out major venues like the O2 Arena in London, those artists and show promoters often struggle to find suitable spaces to hold concerts in Nigeria. They have often made do with generic large halls in big hotels, or open air parks and squares.

A “music-first” arena presents an opportunity for artists to deliver performances to Nigerian audiences that have “been missing for a long time now,” said Tayo Amusan, chairman of Persianas Group in a statement. The Arena, whose construction is said to have started, is to be located in Lagos’s Victoria Island district that houses the city’s largest concentration of entertainment spots, from bars to nightclubs. Before now the best known purpose-built indoor entertainment venue was the National Theatre, which was opened in 1976 and hasn’t been modernized for decades.

Investors hope the new venue will also attract big ticket indoor sporting events from basketball and boxing, to UFC and WWE fights. The initiative comes at a time when sporting leagues like the NBA are expanding their presence in Africa. The fourth season of the NBA’s Basketball Africa League (BAL) held its first ever game in South Africa on Saturday (Mar. 9).

The Arena’s architects are Ankara, Turkey-based Yazgan Design Architecture, who also designed the BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda. Opened in 2019, the 10,000-seater space hosted the BAL’s inaugural season three years ago.

🌍 African filmmakers and producers are at a crossroads with major streamers who arrived less than a decade ago with promises of deep pockets to transform the continent’s production fortunes. Hollywood trade magazine Variety finds uncertainty in African industry circles, even after the significant impact of Netflix alongside the rising competition of South Africa’s Showmax. Amazon’s Prime Video planted seeds of doubt in January by announcing its exit from the continent.

🇲🇱 Mali’s military junta is displacing large populations and exterminating the Fula, Tamasheq (Tuareg), and Moura ethnic minorities in the northern part of the country, write Mohamed Issouf Ag Mohamed and Mariana Bracks Fonseca for Africa is a Country. They argue the fight against terrorism is being used as justification. He posits that the growing international isolation of the military junta in power and the involvement of the Russian mercenary group Wagner have accelerated the persecution of civilians.

🇪🇹 The Ethiopian government’s mass recruitment of young women to work as domestic workers in Gulf states could put them at risk of serious human rights abuses, Jaclynn Ashly writes in African Arguments. The drive, which aims to recruit 500,000 women between the ages 18 and 40, is also hoped to increase remittances to Ethiopia amid a forex crunch in the country. Human rights observers warn that the government is downplaying the potential abuses these women may face.

🇬🇭 Ghana, Rwanda, and Malawi are harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and medical drone technology to improve their healthcare systems. Edwin Ambani Ameso and Gift Mwonzora write that the AI algorithms can allow for timely delivery of health services and easier disease detection and diagnosis, aiding the preliminary assessments of ailments by healthcare professionals.

🇪🇹 Ethiopia’s internal conflict in the Amhara region is on the verge of sparking a full-fledged civil war as simmering grievances and escalating clashes there threaten to trigger another humanitarian disaster. For Foreign Policy, Adem Kassie Abebe and Zelalem Moges explain that a deadly battle between regional Fano militia and government forces are the latest evidence of the inability of Prime Minister Abiy’s government to bring long promised intra-ethnic peace.

Brian Moynihan, CEO, Bank of America; Nicolas Kazadi, finance minister DR Congo; Sim Tshabalala, CEO, Standard Bank; José Muñoz, President & COO, Hyundai Motor Co.; Henry M. Paulson, Jr., Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury; Suzanne Clark, CEO; U.S. Chamber of Commerce; John Williams, President/CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Jared Bernstein, Chair, White House Council of Economic Advisors; Hans Vestberg, CEO, Verizon; Richard Lesser, Global Chair, BCG; and Gretchen Watkins, President, Shell USA, Pat Gelsinger, CEO, Intel; Sen. Ron Wyden, (D) Oregon and more.

We’ve opened registration for our boldest venture in live journalism yet.

🗓️ Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), South Africa’s fourth largest party, will unveil its 2024 election manifesto today in Durban. (Mar. 10)

🗓️ Absa Group, South Africa’s third-largest lender by assets, will report full year financial results for 2023 on Monday. (Mar. 11)

🗓️ Standard Chartered Bank of Kenya will report on its financial performance in 2023. (Mar. 11)

🗓️ The Africa eGovernance Conference will take place in Kigali, Rwanda. It will bring together decision makers to discuss the future of African digital governance. (Mar. 12-14)

🗓️ Nigeria’s statistics office is expected to release the latest inflation data. Annual inflation has continued to rise as widespread insecurity in food producing areas and exchange rate pressure continue to drive up prices. (Mar. 15)

• Sam Altman has been reinstated to OpenAI’s board.
• How ‘Project 2025’ became the Biden presidential campaign’s favorite target.
• A teetering New York bank has been rescued. Will it be the last?

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— Yinka, Alexis Akwagyiram, Alexander Onukwue, Martin Siele, and Muchira Gachenge