28/6/2023
The past six years as Director of the Royal African Society have been fascinating and richly rewarding, not just in terms of Britain’s relations with Africa, but in the relations of Africans – and all people of African heritage – with Britain. Britain itself has changed, and they are central to that change. It has …
South Africa is facing two fundamental challenges, one internal, one external. Its response to both – or failure to respond to either – will define its future prosperity and position in the world. A policy of indecisive drift will not resolve either. Inter...
30/5/2023
Despite an announced humanitarian ceasefire, fighting continues into a fifth day in Khartoum and elsewhere in Sudan. International appeals for renewed talks have so far fallen on deaf ears. The Sudan Amed Forces (SAF) controlled by the head of Sovereignty Coun...
19/4/2023
Africa’s prospects for the coming year hardly look rosy. Problems from climate change to debt, internal dissent, civil conflict and geopolitical rivalry, are piling up. And yet two things might surprise and encourage us: trade and politics. The proble...
18/1/2023
This week, 45 of Africa’s 54 leaders pitched up in Washington DC for the first US-Africa Summit in eight years, with another four countries represented at lower level – a powerful demonstration of the US’s continued pulling power and of its desire to woo...
16/12/2022
On 2 November, the Royal African Society marked its 120th Anniversary with a celebration of Creative Africa at The Shard in London. It was a great event, entertaining our 300 guests with African fashion, film, food and music, and an auction of contemporary Afr...
23/11/2022
New British prime minister Liz Truss has never said much in public about Africa. But, in my view, her administration must pay more attention to its relationship with Africa. African countries are increasingly important partners both in geostrategic and ...
08/9/2022
RAS Director, Dr Nicholas Westcott, who is also currently a Visiting Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, has just published an ECFR policy note on Shared Fortunes: Why Britain, the EU, and Africa need each other. It highlights the i...
03/5/2022
The Republic of Congo (also known as Congo-Brazzaville to avoid confusion with the Democratic Republic of Congo whose capital Kinshasa lies just across the river) came to town in London last week. The investment promotion road show was a very pro...
14/3/2022