🔅 The Photographer Who Flipped the Script on Colonial Imagery in the 19th Century
A Forever President vs. A Forever Opposition Leader & A Bumpy Road to Free Trade
Good Morning from Rwanda!
Last Week in Numbers
Year-to-Date Performance:
🟢 Johannesburg SE: 87,129.65 (+13.31%)
🟢 Nigerian SE: 99,378.06 (+32.90%)
🟢 Nairobi SE: 119.08 (+29.22%)
🟢 Ghana SE: 4,733.62 (+51.22%)
🟢 US S&P 500: 6,051.09 (+27.58%)
🟢 Shanghai Composite: 3,391.88 (+14.50%)
🇨🇲 650,000: Barrels-per-day capacity of Dangote Refinery as it makes its first export to Cameroon, marking a potential shift in regional energy dynamics.
🇬🇭 57%: John Mahama's winning margin in Ghana's presidential election, the biggest victory in two decades. His party will control 60% of parliament as they inherit a challenging economic situation, including $2 billion in local debt.
🇰🇪 4.7%: Kenya's revised economic growth estimate by World Bank, down from 5.0%, citing floods, protests, and fiscal consolidation challenges.
🇸🇱 3: Days an 11-year-old Sierra Leonean girl survived at sea off Lampedusa, the sole survivor of 45 people who departed from Tunisia. 24,300 have died or disappeared on this route since 2014.
🌍 11 Million: Additional malaria cases in 2023 compared to 2022, bringing the total to 263 million. The disease claimed 597,000 lives, mostly African children under 5, with 60.4 cases per 1,000 people at risk - triple WHO's target.
🇿🇲 $13 Billion: External debt Zambia aims to restructure, with France becoming the first bilateral creditor to sign a restructuring agreement.
🇿🇼 18: Years since Zimbabwe's last execution, as the Senate approves a bill to abolish the death penalty. The country has effectively paused executions since 2005, partly due to the absence of a willing executioner.
*Data accurate as of the close of markets across the continent
The 19th-Century African Photographer Who Flipped the Script on Colonial Imagery
Imagine browsing through some old photographs from the late 19th century, and you spot a series of striking images capturing life in colonial Nigeria. The composition is on point, the subjects are captivating, and you're thinking, "Wow, this photographer really knew their stuff!" But then you learn that the person behind the lens was not some white European colonizer, but a black Nigerian man named Jonathan Adagogo Green, a.k.a. J.A. Green. Mind. Blown.
Green's story is a fascinating one. Born in 1873 in the Ibani Ijo community of Bonny, where trade had been thriving for centuries, Green was the son of a chief and had studied photography under an elder in Sierra Leone. He set up shop in his early twenties and quickly made a name for himself as an "artist photographer," capturing everything from regal portraits of Benin kings to serene waterscapes of the Niger Delta.
But what sets Green apart from his European counterparts is the way he subverted colonial tropes and gave agency to his African subjects. Take his most famous portrait, for example: Oba Ovonramwen, the exiled king of Benin, sitting aboard a British ship. While the image is undeniably powerful, it's Green's subtle touches - the king's elaborate garb, the stoic faces of his guards - that speak volumes about the complex power dynamics at play.
Of course, Green's work wasn't without its controversies. His photographs of women, in particular, have been criticized for reinforcing traditional gender roles and presenting them as mere appendages to wealthy men. But even here, Green's documentarian eye captures something deeper: the weight of familial burden, the inadequacy of political power, the resilience of the human spirit.
In many ways, Green's photographs are like visual poems, evoking historical pain and cultural pride. The Republic has a fascinating take on the photographer, and we recommend the read.
The Bumpy Road to Free Trade: Lessons from a Cross-Continental Drive
When British-Nigerian travel influencer Pelumi Nubi set out to drive her trusty purple Peugeot 206, affectionately named Lumi, across 17 countries from London to Lagos, she knew she was in for an adventure. What she didn't anticipate, however, were the numerous roadblocks she'd encounter along the way.
You see, Nubi's journey wasn't just a test of her driving skills and navigational prowess; it was also a crash course in the challenges of intra-ECOWAS travel and trade. Despite the fact that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was founded back in 1975 with the goal of promoting economic integration and free movement among its member states, the reality on the ground is far from borderless.
At the Senegalese border, Nubi was denied entry because her car lacked a special document called a carnet de passage. In Côte d'Ivoire, she was forced to wait nine grueling hours because she refused to pay a bribe. And in Liberia, she had to call in reinforcements from the Nigerian embassy just to get through customs.
These experiences highlight the pervasive challenges that continue to plague West African borders, despite the existence of protocols meant to facilitate free movement and trade. Informal traders, who make up a significant portion of cross-border commerce in the region, face even greater hurdles, as many lack proper documentation and are unaware of their rights.
But why should we care about free movement and trade, anyway?
Well, for starters, it's essential for boosting economic growth and creating opportunities for all Africans. By allowing goods, services, and people to move freely across borders, we can increase productivity, spur innovation, and foster cultural connections that bind us together as a region.
Moreover, free movement is a recognition of the arbitrary nature of many African borders, which were drawn by colonial powers with little regard for the ethnic and cultural ties that span across them. By enabling people to move, reside, and establish businesses in any ECOWAS member state, we can begin to heal the wounds of colonialism and build a more integrated, prosperous future for all West Africans.
But as Nubi's journey has shown us, the road to free movement and trade is a bumpy one, filled with potholes of corruption, detours of bureaucracy, and traffic jams of protectionism.
The Forever President vs. The Forever Opposition: Uganda's Latest Political Drama
Move over, House of Cards – Uganda's bringing its own brand of political theater to the global stage. The latest episode? An 80-year-old president defending military courts while his 68-year-old rival spends Christmas behind bars.
President Yoweri Museveni (who's been running the show since 1986, by the way) took to X (formerly Twitter) to explain why his government's totally cool with trying civilians in military courts. His reasoning? Regular courts are just too slow.
Yet, the Constitutional Court has already ruled against this practice. Museveni's response? A casual ‘we already made it legal’ shrug.
Meanwhile, Kizza Besigye (Museveni's former personal doctor turned political rival) is getting an unexpected extended stay in custody. After being mysteriously whisked away from Kenya last month, he's now facing charges of possessing pistols and trying to buy weapons abroad. His response? A firm "didn't do it."
Fun fact: Besigye has lost four presidential elections to Museveni and been arrested more times than you can imagine, but has never been convicted. It's turning into a really unfunny running gag.
But Museveni seems pretty pleased with his military courts, even giving them a pat on the back for their "contribution to peace." Because nothing says peace like trying civilians in military courts, right?
Food for Thought
“When elephants fight it is the grass that suffers.”
— South Africa Proverb