Africa

1. Learning AI
2. Passport power
3. Rumble in the city
4. Beauty & the Beasts 2
5. Getting paid

Also, why you should always have all your clinical trials in Africa.

Hello! Welcome to Semafor Africa Weekend, where we avoid fights whenever possible. Rumble in the Jungle, the iconic fight between Muhammed Ali and George Foreman in Kinshasa, DR Congo, is as legendary in boxing folklore and sporting iconography as it is in the world of entertainment. It was one of the first few events to be beamed live around the world via satellite technology at the time —things we all take for granted now.

But it was also one of the first times that Africa’s post-colonial geopolitics would intersect with sports on the world stage. Mobutu Sese Seko, who had come to power nine years earlier, spent millions of dollars to bring the fight to Kinshasa, Zaire (as DRC was known then). “Mobutu wants this fight because he thinks it’s going to give him legitimacy, it’s going to raise his profile and show the world that he’s a powerful man,” Ali biographer Jonathan Eig said on the Limitless podcast with Claude Grunitzky.

The point is that while Mobutu did pull off a remarkable feat, it did little for his countrymen and women either in sports or as a way to open up the country to a tourism boom or anything like that. In fact, the opposite unfolded over time. In this edition, we looked at the local artists trying to recapture a unique moment in Congolese history on the global stage.

🟡 It’s been a busy week of news looking at how the outcome of the US election on Tuesday might impact US-Africa policy, be it a Kamala Harris win or a second term for Donald Trump. Alexander covered the rise of African female venture investors and also looked at Gallup data on how West Africans are the most keen to migrate.

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Google funds AI training in Africa

The amount in funding Google is providing to organizations in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa to advance foundational AI skills. Nigeria’s Data Scientists Network Foundation — which will create a program to train the unemployed and at risk Nigerians in foundational digital and tech skill — will receive a $1.5 million grant. South African universities, which will participate in the Google.org Cybersecurity Seminars program, will also receive funding. It also supports Young Scientists Kenya which will roll out AI literacy education programs.

Africa’s most powerful passports

Seychelles again topped the Henley Passport Index 2024 last month as the most powerful passport on the continent. The index, which includes 199 passports and 227 travel destinations, placed Seychelles 24th globally, with its holders able to access 156 destinations without a visa being organized beforehand. Mauritius’ passport was ranked second most powerful on the continent and 29th globally, with its holders accessing 150 countries without a prior visa. South Africa, the continent’s most advanced economy, ranked 48th globally, with access to 106 countries. The weakest African passport was Somalia’s, with visa-free access to only 35 countries.

Art preserves heritage in the Congo

Tata Raphaël Stadium, located in the heart of Kinshasa and the venue of the iconic fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, shows no trace of the event today.

It’s been 50 years since “Rumble in the Jungle” put the country on the world stage under the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko but there was not a major official commemoration. However, local artists have taken it upon themselves to do so. “From a political perspective, celebrating ‘Zaire 74’ is awkward because it would mean celebrating the peak of Mobutu’s era,” Patrick Mudekereza, director of the Waza Art Center in Lubumbashi, told Semafor Africa.

Across Goma, Kinshasa, and Lubumbashi, galleries and art centers are preserving this bit of history. In Kinshasa, the Malabo Gallery showcases Patrick Lomalisa’s works in an exhibition titled “Beyond the Ring” (pictured). Inspired by Rumble in the Jungle, Lomalisa’s 20 paintings capture the spirit of the legendary fight while drawing “a connection to the daily struggles that everyone faces,” said Joseph Darchy Mayunga, of Malobo Gallery.

In Lubumbashi, the country’s second-largest city, photographer Sikasso Kazadi is showcasing archival photos over a month, from Ali’s arrival to the excitement in Kinshasa and the fight with Foreman, with free public access. Other artists, like Colin Delfosse from Belgium and Kakudji, are also drawing on this history to “keep it alive.”

“This is our identity, and these exhibits keep the flame alive for current and future generations,” says Yvon Edoumou, a local art critic.

— Elisha Iragi in Lubumbashi, DR Congo

South Africa goes after beauty queen

Beauty queen Chidimma Adetshina, who has been embroiled in a nationality row in South Africa, looks set to be stripped of her identity documents alongside her mother.

Adetshina, a 23-year-old law student, has dual South African and Nigerian citizenship. She was born in Soweto to a Nigerian father and a Mozambican-born mother with South African citizenship.

Home Affairs Director General Tommy Makhode told South African lawmakers on Tuesday that Adetshina and her mother hadn’t justified continuing to hold South African identity documents, prompting his department to withdraw the documents.

Adetshina pulled out from the Miss South Africa pageant finals in August to protect her family from xenophobic attacks following a public outcry over her identity. It highlighted the xenophobia and Afrophobia that remains prevalent in parts of South African society.

Adetshina went on to be crowned Miss Universe Nigeria 2024 and will represent the West African country in the Miss Universe competition on Nov. 16.

— Muchira Gachenge

How African content creators make money

African content creators are relying on sales of digital services for the majority of their income, a report on the sector based on a survey of creators says. Social media sites Instagram and TikTok have provided a base for millions of Africans to build careers as influencers of public opinion on subjects ranging from fashion and food, to personal finance and personal health.

The African Creator Economy Report, produced by three Nigeria-based organizations TM Global, TM CON and Communique, found that the typical African content creator is a woman aged between 18 and 24, with fewer than 10,000 followers. The sector is projected to post an annual growth rate of 28.5% to reach a value of nearly $18 billion by 2030, the report said.

A major hurdle, however, is monetization. In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation where an estimated 30 million people use social media, more than half of the pool of content creators earn less than 100,000 naira ($60) monthly from their craft.

Weekend Reads

🇿🇦 Scientists in healthcare should look more to Africa as the first base for proving their solutions, taking advantage of the continent’s diverse gene pool. It is the view of Kelly Chibale, the University of Cape Town professor regarded as one of Africa’s preeminent scientists. “If you really want to have confidence in a clinical trial, it must start in Africa. Why? If it works in Africa, there’s a good chance it’ll work somewhere else,” the Zambian scientist told The Guardian.

🇦🇴 João Lourenço’s presidency in Angola has been marked by a pivot to US allyship away from his and Angola’s longstanding ties to communist ideals. Since taking office in 2017, Lourenço has oriented Angola to mirror the kind of rapid development pursued by former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping but with the US as its preferred guide and partner, not China or Russia, Claudio Silva writes in Africa Is a Country.

🇿🇼 Zimbabwe’s Indigenous Business Development Centre failed to live up to its purpose of financially empowering the country’s black entrepreneurs because it became a vehicle for cronyism. In ZAM magazine, Mukudzei Madenyika reports on the rise of a class of questionably wealthy people called mbingas, who partly arose from the IBDC being mismanaged by politicians and politically connected individuals.

🇺🇬 Soon after many African countries gained independence in the 1960s there was a wave of Modernism architecture unleashed across the continent. “As an architectural movement, Modernism was ideal for the day, and newly independent countries had extensive building programs to assert themselves as fully functioning nations,” writes Mohieldin Gamal for ArchDaily’s photo essay on Modernist hotels across East Africa.

🌍 Africa is struggling to make up its mind about what it wants the United Nations to be, writes Ebenezer Obadare. The continent’s leaders have wavered between disillusionment with the institution and demand for equal treatment, locking its ambition and influence in a stalemate. Asking for a permanent veto on the UN security council “that was up until recently denounced as undemocratic and obnoxious smacks of opportunism and moral inconsistency,” he argues.

🇲🇱 The deaths of nearly 50 Wagner mercenaries in a July face-off with Tuareg separatists in northern Mali showed weaknesses in the Russian outfit’s capacity to deliver on its promise to protect strongmen African leaders. The New York Times, confirming the deaths of the Wagner fighters using visual clues on the battlefront, reports that the battle’s fallout is reverberating in Russia amongst angry relatives of the deceased mercenaries.

Week Ahead

Nov. 4 — South African commercial property group Redefine Properties will report annual results for the year ended Aug. 31, 2024.

Nov. 4 -6 — Africa Energy Expo will take place in Kigali, Rwanda.

Nov. 4-6 — The Africa Venture Philanthropy Alliance conference will take place in Nairobi with over 350 social investors collaborating to increase the flow of impact capital in Africa.

Nov. 4-8 — The African Energy Week will bring together oil ministers and company executives to Cape Town.

Nov. 7 — Kenya’s largest telecom Safaricom will release its half-year financial results.

Nov. 8 — Nigeria’s Federal High Court in Abuja will begin a trial for 10 protesters who face charges of treason and conspiring to incite the military to mutiny in early August.

Nov. 10 — Mauritius will hold its 12th general election since independence, with just over a million registered voters expected to cast votes. Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth is hoping to secure a parliamentary majority and get another five years in office. The nation’s communications regulator on Friday ordered all internet service providers to suspend access to social media platforms until Nov. 11, a day after the elections.

Developing country leaders should temper expectations for an ambitious deal on climate finance at the COP29 summit in Azerbaijan this month, writes Semafor Net Zero’s Tim McDonnell. The UK official who led the 2021 iteration of the summit told him the agreement on the $1 trillion target will be nearly impossible to get.

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