🔅 A Radical Rethinking of African Land & Sky
A Ms South Africa Mystery & The Kenyans in Haiti: High Hopes and Growing Frustrations
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Market Mondays
Year-to-Date Performance:
🟢 Johannesburg SE: 80,739.31 (+5.00%)
🟢 Nigerian SE: 98,592.12 (+31.85%)
🟢 Nairobi SE: 102.06 (+10.80%)
🟢 Ghana SE: 4,440.78 (+41.87%)
🟢 US S&P 500: 5,344.16 (+12.68%)
🔴 Shanghai Composite: 2,862.19 (-3.38%)
🇳🇬 Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), the company behind Africa's soon-to-be largest oil refinery, has been downgraded by Fitch Ratings to B+ and put it on a ratings watch negative, citing concerns about liquidity and ability to raise money. Blame it on Nigeria's currency devaluation, which sent the naira to record lows and left Dangote with a massive foreign exchange loss. Meanwhile, the refinery, a $20 billion behemoth built by Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote, is not happy with Nigeria's upstream oil regulator. Why? Because they're not enforcing the Domestic Crude Supply Obligation (DCSO), which requires crude oil producers to supply domestic refiners with a portion of their production. Dangote Refinery says this lax enforcement is raising their operational costs.
🇪🇹 In a move that's been a long time coming, Ethiopia is gearing up to launch its very own securities exchange in October. This is all part of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's grand plan to open up the country to greater private investment. The government is also discussing selling a 10% stake in state-owned telecoms company Ethio Telecom via the exchange. Meanwhile, Ethiopia has signed an agreement for the design of a new four-runway airport that will be Africa's biggest when construction is completed in 2029
🇰🇪 Nervous investors in Kenya are steering clear of long-dated Treasury bills and bonds, making it even harder for the debt-burdened government to fund its budget. With demand for the benchmark 1-year Treasury bill at an all-time low, the government's plans to pivot to domestic borrowing after scrapping controversial tax hikes are looking shaky.
*Data accurate as of the close of markets across the continent
Spotlight Stories
Thandi Loewenson Wins 2024 Wheelwright Prize for Radical Rethinking of African Land & Sky
Thandi Loewenson is taking us down the rabbit hole with her mind-bending project "Black Papers: Beyond the Politics of Land, Towards African Policies of Earth & Air."
And the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) is so impressed, they've awarded her the 2024 Wheelwright Prize $100k to make it happen.
Loewenson's project is like The Matrix meets An Inconvenient Truth.
She's introducing a new framework called "the entanglement of Earth and Air" that expands our understanding of land in contemporary Africa to include everything from rare metals deep underground to the digital cloud high in the sky.
It's a trip that spans from a single breath to entire weather systems.
Whoa.
Through this mind-bending lens, Loewenson will examine how colonial capitalist systems of exploitation are intertwined across multiple Earthly and airborne terrains. She'll use techniques like aerial surveying and prospecting, and even mine "technology metals" (the minerals in your smartphone that enable global digital dispossession - yikes).
But Loewenson's not just going to write some dry academic papers. She's creating the "Black Papers" - a series of radical policy proposals and public perception-shapers. These multimedia marvels will incorporate drawings, videos, performances, and critical creative writing designed to reach the masses through pop culture channels like WhatsApp. It's policy discourse meets performance art.
The Wheelwright Prize jury is totally here for Loewenson's boundary-pushing approach. Juror Jennifer Newsom gushes that Loewenson's work "extends these arguments into a material practice rich with layers—the matter that matters to our time."
In other words, this is architectural research like you've never seen it before.
Over the next two years, the prize will fund Loewenson's research across seven African nations: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Buckle up, friends. With visionaries like Thandi Loewenson at the helm, the future of architectural research is looking wild, and ready to change the world. 🌍🔥💫
The Kenyans in Haiti: High Hopes and Growing Frustrations
Six weeks ago, the first group of elite Kenyan police officers touched down in Haiti, ready to take on the country's notorious gangs. They strode off the plane in their combat gear, waving the Kenyan flag. It was like a scene out of an action movie, and expectations were high.
The Kenyans were supposed to be the cavalry, riding in to help Haiti's struggling police force get a handle on the gang violence that's been terrorizing the country for years. And at first, they were welcomed with open arms. Haitian leaders and media outlets praised their arrival.
Fast forward a few weeks, and the honeymoon period seems to be over. Many Haitians are getting impatient, wondering why the Kenyan force hasn't made more progress against the gangs.
There have been joint patrols and shootouts with suspected gang members, but the gangs only seem to be tightening their grip on the capital.
Some are now questioning why the Kenyans were sent in the first place.
Meanwhile, the gang leaders are openly taunting the Kenyan and Haitian forces. One particularly brazen gang boss, Jimmy "Barbecue" Chérizier, posted a video of his masked foot soldiers chanting "Here's Kenya, bullets for them" while waving their weapons around.
The Kenyans have tried to counter the negative press by launching their own Twitter account, @MSSMHaiti, where they post daily updates on their activities. But their upbeat reports of "significant success" and a "gradual return to normalcy" have ruffled some feathers among Haitians, who see it as overblown "propaganda."
The Curious Case of the Controversial Contestant: A Miss SA Mystery
The Miss South Africa competition, usually known for its glitz, glamour, and endless supply of hairspray, has been overshadowed by a citizenship scandal that's got the whole country talking.
Enter Chidimma Adetshina, a 23-year-old law student and beauty queen hopeful. She claims to have been born in Soweto to a Nigerian father and a South African mother with "Mozambican roots." Sounds like a pretty diverse background, right? Well, apparently, not everyone was convinced.
The question of Adetshina's citizenship became the hottest topic in South Africa, with everyone from politicians to celebrities weighing in. Meanwhile, the poor contestant found herself on the receiving end of some poor online abuse.
But then… the home affairs ministry decided to step in and investigate Adetshina's citizenship, with the minister himself, Leon Schreiber, leading the charge. And boy, did they uncover a juicy plot twist!
According to the ministry, there's reason to believe that Adetshina's mother may have committed fraud and identity theft. Gasp! They claim that an innocent South African mother's identity may have been stolen, preventing her from registering her own child.
Now, before we start pointing fingers, it's important to note that Adetshina herself is not implicated in this alleged fraud. She was just a wee babe back in 2001 when all of this supposedly went down.
Faced with this messy situation, Adetshina made the tough call to withdraw from the Miss SA competition, citing concerns for her family's safety and well-being. In an Instagram post, she thanked the organization for the "amazing experience" and left with a "heart full of gratitude."
This whole debacle sheds light on the ongoing issue of xenophobia in South Africa, where high unemployment and crime rates have fueled a pushback again migrants from other African countries.
Food for Thought
“Birds which fly without co-ordination, beat each other's wings.”
— Buganda, Uganda Proverb