🔅 Elephants on Barges, Royal Drummers & a Whole Lot of Mud
Plus, Africa’s Top Bank Is Picking a New Boss
Good morning from… can you guess where? (Answer at the bottom!)
Kuomboka Unplugged: Elephants on Barges, Royal Drummers & a Whole Lot of Mud
What do you get when you cross a royal canoe, a cloth elephant, 300 hand-charred oars, and a floodplain that swallows roads whole? A weekend at Kuomboka, Zambia’s most waterlogged and wondrous carnival…
Once a year (moon and Zambezi willing), the Lozi king (the litunga) packs up his royal paddles and swaps palaces, gliding across the Barotse Floodplain in a barge topped with a giant elephant. This year marked his silver jubilee, so naturally, things got extra splashy.
“To others, the flood is catastrophe. To the Lozi, it’s a blessing,” says a tour guide, who summed it best.
And really, the whole experience must have felt like a fever dream: drumming beneath palm trees, red-beret-clad villagers crafting zebra-striped paddles by firelight, and royal advisers name-dropping London tailors responsible for outfitting monarchs since Edward VII. There were helicopter flyovers, boat chases through reeds, and an elephant (okay, a cloth one) floating through the flood like he knew he was the moment.
Have we piqued your interest yet? Find out more about Lozi ecology, monarchy, music, and memory, right here.
Africa’s Top Bank Is Picking a New Boss
The African Development Bank (AfDB) is holding its annual power summit this week in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. The continent’s largest development lender is on the hunt for a new president at a moment when the U.S. is threatening to yank more than half a billion dollars in funding.
Not exactly a warm welcome for whoever wins.
What’s at Stake?
Washington wants to cut $555 million in funding to both the AfDB and its concessional arm, the African Development Fund (ADF), which gives cheap loans to Africa’s poorest nations. That’s a body blow just months before the ADF’s next fundraising round in November, which is ambitiously aiming for $25 billion, up from $8.9 billion last time.
And with Trump 2.0 back in the White House, U.S. appetite for multilateral generosity is looking thinner than ever.
Meet the Candidates, Face the Crisis
Five contenders (from South Africa, Senegal, Zambia, Chad, and Mauritania) are in the running to succeed Akinwumi Adesina, who steps down in September after two terms. Whoever wins will need to:
Convince a skeptical U.S. to reverse cuts
Charm new donors like China and the Gulf states (think Saudi Arabia, UAE)
Or, ask African countries to pony up more themselves
What’s the Bank’s Plan?
Outgoing president Adesina outlined a vision of lighting up Africa (literally), boosting agriculture, building industry, integrating economies, and generally improving lives. Lofty stuff, because it needs big funding.
All eyes are now on Thursday, when the winning candidate will be announced. They’ll need over 50% of the African vote, followed by another round with all 81 member states, including non-African shareholders like Japan, France… and yes, the U.S…
Nigeria’s oil baton is changing hands
Shell, Exxon and their ilk have finally tired of Nigeria’s on-shore oil soap-opera: spills, lawsuits and pipes tapped like free bar kegs. They’re sailing off to deep-water rigs.
And into the vacuum is striding Nigeria’s own tycoons: Tony Elumelu’s Heirs Energies paid half-a-billion dollars for ageing Shell licences and, simply by fixing rusty valves, doubled output to 55,000 b/d. Wale Tinubu’s Oando is spending $783 million on Eni’s business and has already sacked dozens of pricey expatriates. Chappal Energies shelled out $1.2 billion for Equinor’s stake in the giant Agbami field.
Their pitch: we have a better understanding of the local environment.
And although challenges remain (Western banks have gone ESG-shy, oil theft still siphons millions, and some reservoirs are closer to retirement than renaissance) for the first time most of Nigeria’s on-shore barrels are under Nigerian ownership.
If it works, profits stay home and Nigeria cheers, and we’re here for it. More on this in the Financial Times.
Food for Thought
“The lucky person can sell water even near the Niger River.”
— Nigeria Proverb
And the Answer is…
The photo is taken from Zambia! You can also send in your own photos, alongside the location, and we’ll do our best to feature them.
This is from Scroll XVI of my project The Hidden Clinic. I wrote it as a prayer—not a statement. Not for applause. Just rhythm for witness. https://thehiddenclinic.substack.com/p/to-the-ones-who-were-set-on-fire