🔅 Paris’s Afro-Diasporic Art Party at the Pompidou
Trump's Tariffs Blitz & A Once-a-Year HIV Prevention Jab
Good morning from… Can you guess where in Africa this is? (Answer at the bottom!)
Paris’s Afro-Diasporic Art Party at the Pompidou
Imagine strolling into the Pompidou Centre, only to be greeted by a splash of color and a gentle hum of jazz. That’s roughly the vibe at Paris Noir, a sprawling show that corrals more than 150 Black artists from across Africa and the diaspora – all of whom rocked up to the City of Light (and croissants) in search of a new creative frontier. You’ll spy everything from Afro-Atlantic surrealism to art-activism on French colonial outrages, each piece testifying to the city’s tricky-yet-irresistible magnetism.
Leading the pack is a moody 1947 self-portrait by Gerard Sekoto—the South African modernist who wound up moonlighting as a jazz singer. Don’t be fooled by the gloom in his eyes; it’s a reflection of the era’s political turmoil and the not-so-glamorous side of Parisian “refuge.”
And in this 350-piece labyrinth, you’ll meet Haitian-French collagist Hervé Télémaque, Ivorian sculptor Christian Lattier, Senegalese painter As M’Bengue, plus—yes, you guessed it—Jean-Michel Basquiat (though he just breezed in at one point in the late 1980s, leaving an unmistakable aerosol imprint). There’s a sense of Africa’s diaspora floating around Montparnasse with a baguette in one hand and notebooks brimming with anti-colonial slogans in the other.
In short: if you ever questioned Paris’s title as a historically Black creative hub, Paris Noir sets that record straight. It’s a visual jam session of big, bold strokes, jazz inspirations, civil-rights edge, and Pan-African synergy. And that, mes amis, is one heck of an art party.
Paris Noir runs until June 30th.
A Once-a-Year HIV Prevention Jab: Because Remembering Daily Pills is Harder than Your Ex’s Birthday
Good news for anyone whose pill-taking routine is as reliable as their morning alarm (that they hit snooze on seven times): scientists have successfully completed an early safety trial for an annual HIV prevention jab.
Lenacapavir is designed to stop HIV from replicating in your cells. Injected once a year, it sticks around in your system for 56 weeks.
It’s a game changer: Right now, if you want protection from HIV, your options are daily pills or an injection every eight weeks. Sure, pills are effective, but remembering to take one every day? Some of us struggle just remembering to hydrate.
Globally, nearly 40 million people are living with HIV, with 65% in Africa alone. Organizations like WHO and UNAids aim to end the epidemic by 2030, partly by making prevention easier, thus highlighting the importance of Lenacapavir.
The trial injected 40 HIV-negative volunteers and found zero major side-effects. However, the researchers want future tests to include more diverse participants, so the jab’s effectiveness isn't just limited to the clinical equivalent of an indie band’s fanbase.
So, fingers crossed Lenacapavir can scale up fast and finally take the headache out of HIV prevention.
Trump’s Tariff Blitz: Sounding the Death Knell for AGOA?
If you’re an African exporter banking on AGOA (the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act) to get your goods into the U.S. without pesky taxes, brace yourself. Donald Trump just dropped a tariff bombshell, slapping universal 10% duties on all imports and then adding “reciprocal” surcharges on countries he says “treat us badly.” That means 30% for South Africa, 14% for Nigeria, and a jaw-dropping 50% for Lesotho. The White House claims these nations run hefty barriers against U.S. products, so now it’s payback time.
All this spells trouble for AGOA, the 25-year-old arrangement that lets African manufacturers ship everything from Ethiopian coffee to Kenyan textiles, duty-free, into American markets. Normally, 32 African countries qualify for such perks – but as of now, those freebies look suspiciously overshadowed by brand-new double-digit taxes. Some watchers see the entire policy “walking dead” style, not quite canceled, but definitely on life support.
South Africa fired back first. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office labeled the new taxes “punitive” – they claim to see “no real logic” behind slamming them with a rate triple the baseline. Nigeria isn’t too pleased either, given that it’s already reeling from a cost-of-living crisis. Both countries are top U.S. trade partners on the continent, sending everything from oil to cars across the Atlantic. Suddenly, those shipments got a lot pricier.
Lesotho, the tiny southern African kingdom with the world’s second-highest HIV burden, got hammered worst, with a 50% tariff on its exports. Coupled with Trump’s earlier foreign aid freeze, that means even less wiggle room for a country that’s definitely not rolling in cash. The same story goes for Madagascar at 47%, Mauritius at 40%, and so on. And for countries like Kenya and Ghana (which aren’t singled out with reciprocal duties), the new 10% standard tariff is still no picnic.
Will Everyone Just Pivot to China?
Since 2000, AGOA has been cheered as a major success. It’s supposedly created thousands of African jobs, mainly in sectors like apparel, agriculture, and minerals. But with “Trump’s Tariff Invasion,” that success might fizzle. Analysts predict that Africa will swerve deeper into China’s orbit, because let’s be real: China’s been Africa’s largest trading partner for nearly two decades already. And Beijing doesn’t do this “tariff tantrum” routine.
Ultimately, Trump’s “economic independence” push basically lumps Africa in with everyone else who, according to him, has been “ripping off the U.S. for years.” And that means the AGOA arrangement (due for renewal soon) could become the biggest casualty of this new trade war.
Separately, we encourage you to take a look at this interview with AfDB president, Akinwumi Adesina, who talks about why Africa can no longer rely on benevolence of others. Worth a watch.
Food for Thought
“If you invite yourself, bring your own chair.”
— DRC Proverb
And the Answer is…
The photo is taken in Madagascar! You can also send in your own photos, alongside the location, and we’ll do our best to feature them.
Thanks for the hint in Paris.