Africa

1. South Sudan’s plan
2. Robot restaurant
3. Comedy + politics
4. Delivering profits?
5. GM crops
6. Street food

Also, conservation efforts in DR Congo.

Hello! Welcome to Semafor Africa Weekend, where we’ve been thinking with our stomachs. That’s probably obvious from the stories in this edition, which look at food from several angles. Food security is an issue we’ve reported on extensively. I recently interviewed Alvaro Lario, the head of the UN agency that invests in global food supplies. He stressed the importance of countries becoming self-sufficient by cultivating neglected crops rather than relying on imported wheat, for example — a point raised in a recent study. There’s also the possibility of disease-resistant crops, which is why below we look at how Rwanda is testing out GM crops.

But beyond what we eat is the question of how we eat, so in this edition we also dig into food delivery apps and a restaurant with robot staff. Bon appétit!

🟡 We’ve had a busy week. Ethiopia’s central bank governor told Samuel Getachew he expects the country’s currency float to be “transformative” and Joël Té-Léssia Assoko reported on authoritarian measures imposed by Burkina Faso’s military government. Martin K.N Siele reported on the US putting pressure on Kenya over alleged rights abuses by Kenyan police. He also reported that, surprisingly, Russian mercenaries had been more active in Africa in the year since Yevgeny Prigozhin’s death than when the Wagner leader was alive.

🟡🟡 Have you followed us on WhatsApp yet? What are you waiting for?

Improving food security with innovation

The amount the African Development Bank is providing in funding for South Sudan’s Food and Agriculture delivery pact, a six-year plan featuring a raft of food security initiatives. The program aims to improve access to South Sudan’s key agricultural products, including sorghum, rice, and sesame. It also seeks to encourage the roll out of climate-smart technologies and improved water efficiency techniques. The plan includes the creation of 240 schools teaching farming and business skills.

Kenya welcomes futuristic dining

Diners are flocking to Robot Cafe, East Africa’s first restaurant that uses robot assistants to wait on guests. The cafe opened in Kenya’s capital Nairobi last month.

The robot employees, which work alongside human staff, are programmed using artificial intelligence and remotely controlled to carry out tasks. At the entrance, one robot welcomes you to the cafe. At the table, a server takes your order, which the robot then delivers. The robots are fitted with built-in trays on which food collected from kitchen staff is placed and delivered to the customer’s table.

Jacinta Mukai, a hostess at the cafe, told Semafor Africa that people were traveling from different parts of the country for the dining experience. “Someone flew in from India to experience the robot services at our cafe,” she said of the growing popularity of the cafe since it opened to the public.

She added the robots, which have sensors to help them avoid collisions, are also programmed to sing during special occasions such as birthdays.

The cafe’s manager, John Kariuki, told a local television station that mechanization wasn’t taking jobs away because the “human touch” was constantly needed and they were actually hiring more people.

— Muchira Gachenge in Nairobi

Meet Nigerian satirist Dan Bello

Nigerian satirist Bello Galadanci, best known by his stage name Dan Bello, has amassed more than a million followers on TikTok who are fans of his videos that blend social commentary and comedy.

Bello, a journalist, posts videos in Hausa, a language spoken widely in northern Nigeria, along with English subtitles.

💡What motivates you? We’ve always dreamed of a better country. Unfortunately, terrible leadership, corruption, and many other problems have destroyed the lives of millions of Nigerians. On the other hand, Nigerians love entertainment. I believe a mix of addressing those issues and entertainment will definitely engage Nigerians. Satire is a tool to really address sociopolitical issues while being as entertaining as possible.

💡What feedback do you get from ordinary people and those in power? Some ordinary citizens are afraid, saying “you’ve got to be careful.” But most of them are optimistic that we will definitely forge a better country. For people in power, most of them are, surprisingly, sending encouraging messages.

💡Why does satire matter? It’s important because when people are politically educated, they know what to expect from their leaders and how to hold their leaders accountable. This will put down a foundation for an effective democratic society.

💡What are the advantages and disadvantages of performing in Hausa? I don’t think there are any disadvantages. It’s all advantages because the local person who is in every nook and every corner in northern Nigeria can consume the message quickly. In the future, the education system and everything else needs to be in a local language. We have to appreciate the native languages.

— Hamza Ibrahim in Kano, Nigeria

Nigeria’s Chowdeck offers African food delivery model

A Nigerian company backed by Silicon Valley’s top startup incubator hopes to show food delivery apps can thrive in Africa.

African e-commerce firm Jumia stopped delivering food in seven countries last December, as did Estonian ride-hailing platform Bolt in Nigeria and South Africa.

But business is booming for food delivery app Chowdeck, launched three years ago, which operates in eight Nigerian cities. It has doubled its daily deliveries to 40,000 in the last three months since raising $2.5 million from investors that included Y Combinator, Chowdeck’s chief executive Femi Aluko told Semafor Africa.

It was Nigeria’s most downloaded food delivery app in the last month, according to tracking platform Similarweb.

Chowdeck’s new partnership strategy may partly explain the surge and offer a model for success. Earlier this month it reached a deal to exclusively deliver orders from Chicken Republic — one of Nigeria’s largest fast food chains — in the southern cities of Lagos and Ibadan. Aluko said deals with other chains are in the pipeline.

Other delivery services are competing in Nigeria. After two years operating a grocery delivery service in the country, Angolan company Mano began delivering food in Lagos and Abuja this month. Glovo, a Spanish outfit that launched in Nigeria in 2021, reported a 166% increase in jollof rice orders on its app last month.

International Market Analysis Research and Consulting estimates that the Nigerian food delivery sector was worth $936 million as of last year. The sector is poised to shoot past $2 billion by 2032, the research group said.

— Alexander Onukwue in Lagos

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Rwanda trials GM crops

Rwanda is gearing up to embrace growing genetically modified crops to improve its food security, a senior researcher told Semafor Africa.

Athanase Nduwumuremyi, of Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resource Development Board, said confined trials for cassava — in which the crops are grown and monitored in a fenced area — were underway and would begin for maize next season. He said researchers had also been granted permission to conduct confined trials involving Irish potatoes.

The goal is to cultivate varieties of cassava, maize, and Irish potatoes that are resistant to diseases and pests. Researchers are also on track to develop banana seeds that will not be affected by fusarium wilt and banana bacterial wilt, according to Nduwumuremyi.

While environmental activists have cautioned against cultivating GM crops, Nduwumuremyi said the varieties are safe.

The East African nation joins Kenya in embracing GM crops which carry the promise of high yields in the wake of climate change and drought. In 2022, Kenya’s President William Ruto lifted a ban on the cultivation and importation of genetically modified maize, which had been in place for 10 years, in an effort to increase food production and hunger.

With hunger rising on the continent, governments are adopting different approaches to tackle food insecurity, such as drought resistant crops and innovative funding in the agriculture sector.

— Muchira

Street Foods: South African sweet treat

Melktert (milk tart) is a quintessential South African dessert. And it’s as simple as it sounds. Similar to the Portuguese pastel de nata, thin crispy pastry is filled with a milk-based custard, baked in a round tin, and sprinkled with cinnamon.

They are usually sold at padstals (farm stalls), small pit stops along major highways where people from local towns sell homemade goods. Stopping on the way to your destination to get a slice of milk tart and a strong coffee, complete with generous spoonfuls of condensed milk, is South African road trip 101.

No two milk tarts are the same, and every baker has their own twist on the pudding with Dutch origins.

The soft filling has a texture that can only be described as a mix between mousse, cheesecake, and marshmallow. Milk tarts can be served warm or cold, and eaten whenever the craving arises.

– Marché Arends in Cape Town

Weekend Reads

🌍 African nations are victims of climate change policies and international aid organizations, despite their negligible carbon emissions, argues Paul Collier in Foreign Policy. The economics professor says organizations like the International Energy Agency, which has proposed an embargo on extracting new carbon-based energy, have hindered the economic growth prospects of low-income countries.

🇸🇴 The use of drones by Somalia to fight insurgent group al-Shabaab has increased the number of civilian casualties, write Iqra Salah and Guled Mohamed for The Elephant. Somalia is carrying out strikes in collaboration with international partners like Turkey. Reflecting on a recent attack in which at least 23 civilians were killed and 17 others were wounded, they note that Turkey is yet to implement a comprehensive system to address the collateral damage resulting from its military support in Somalia.

🇲🇿 For African Arguments, Ekpali Saint delves into efforts by Mozambicans to mitigate the impact of climate change by cultivating seaweed to absorb carbon dioxide. The southern African nation has been vulnerable to devastating storms, floods, and droughts, exacerbated by climate change. But Saint argues that seaweed farming promises to simultaneously fight climate change and enhance marine biodiversity.

🇨🇩 The reclamation of the Upemba National Park in the south-east of DR Congo is on course, but its success means defeating both poachers and armed rebels, writes Emmet Livingstone in The Guardian. Livingstone notes that rangers and officials in the park have made considerable conservation efforts to save the only national park in DRC with wild zebra populations, but rebels fighting for the independence of the country’s mineral-rich Katanga region continue to pose a challenge.

🗓️ Week Ahead

Aug. 26 — Zimbabwe’s Otakukon anime convention will return to the capital, Harare.

Aug. 28 — South Africa’s top gold producer by volume, Harmony Gold, will release full-year results.

Aug. 29 — Platinum giant Impala will release full-year results.

Aug. 30 - Sept. 8 — The 56th edition of the Eswatini International Trade Fair will take place in Manzini.

Aug. 30 - Sept. 6 — A special session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification will be held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

• Harris caps Democratic convention’s return to Obamaism.
• Single-issue climate policies less effective than mixed approach, landmark report finds.
• Kyiv’s allies hope Modi’s Ukraine visit signals a shift in India’s non-aligned stance.

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— Yinka, Alexis, Alexander Onukwue, Martin Siele, Muchira Gachenge, and Jenna Moon