13/2/2020
The Franc Zone is vulnerable to the criticism that it is a colonial arrangement. It consists of fourteen countries on mainland Africa, all but two of which are former French colonies. (There is a separate arrangement with the Comoros.) The currency, the CFA franc, is issued by two central banks, headquartered in Dakar and Yaoundé, …
2019 was a pretty mixed year both in Africa and the UK. In Africa, there were bright spots like Senegal and Ghana; some dark spots, like Cameroon and Zimbabwe where problems are festering; and a lot of dappled spots in between from Sudan and Ethiopia, w...
09/1/2020
We read last week that the Brazilian economy ministry had adjusted its monthly export data for September, October and November twice in under a week. The revisions were sizeable: that for November was close to US$6bn. They undermine the credibility of the stat...
19/12/2019
This blog was co-authored by Dr Julian Eaton (Co-Director of the Centre for Global Mental Health at LSHTM and Mental Health Director at CBM International), Dr Nicholas Westcott (Director of the Royal African Society) and Prof Stanley Okolo (Director-General of...
10/10/2019
I visited Tanzania last month for the first time in five years and for the first time since John Magufuli was elected president in 2015. I have been visiting the country regularly since 1976, living there for a year as a student in 1979 and for three years a...
11/8/2019
When a prominent Liberian women’s rights activist, let us call her Mary, was personally invited to Britain by DfID to speak at the 2017 Family Planning Summit, she leapt at the opportunity to give direct testimony to a key meeting. But first she had to tra...
16/7/2019
“Home Office data on visa refusals shows that African applicants are more than twice as likely to be refused a UK visa than applicants from any other part of the world. The UK has good relations with most African countries, but it needs to be recognised ...
16/7/2019
The offer of contemporary African arts and culture currently presented in the UK is limited, but there is a clear openness and appetite amongst audiences for more. A report launched by the Royal African Society on Monday 3rd June 2019 in partnership wi...
03/6/2019
On 23 May, the Royal African Society, with the SOAS Centre for African Studies and London Business School’s Africa Club, held an open workshop on ‘The African Middle Class Re-examined’. The discussion explored who exactly the ‘African middle class’ a...
31/5/2019