🔅 Liberia's Presidential Heatstroke & Blinken's African Diplomatic Tour
Plus, Kenya's Nicotine Controversy and Ivory Coast's Bold Bond Move
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Brief & Bright: Africa's Top Five
Boakai's Inaugural Heatwave: Liberia's New President Overheated but OK
Liberia's new President, Joseph Boakai, at the young age of 79, had a bit of a sizzle under the Monrovian sun during his inauguration speech. Just when he was about to unleash his presidential wisdom, the sweltering heat decided to play the villain. Mid-speech, Boakai had to take a quick break, proving that even presidents aren't immune to Mother Nature. His team escorted him away from the podium, and just like that, the ceremony wrapped up quicker than expected. Mohammed Ali, the spokesperson for Boakai's ruling Unity party, chimed in with a post-incident report: "It is the heat. The heat was high." He reassured everyone that Boakai was OK, attributing the incident to age and exhaustion. During the election campaign, some naysayers pointed fingers at Boakai's age and energy levels.
Blinken's Africa Trip Is Underway
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is currently travelling in Africa, with his first stops being Cape Verde and Ivory Coast, where he's talking up trade, security, and democracy. Cape Verde, in particular, was hailed as an exemplary case of stability. Next up on his travel itinerary are Nigeria and Angola, because why stop at two when you can visit four? But really, what this trip does is highlight the fact that Africa was meant to be a focus of the US during Biden's tenure, although the president failed to deliver on promises to visit the continent by the end of 2023. Here, Blinken's job is to reassure everyone that the US is still all in when it comes to Africa.
Kenya's Nicotine Nudge: BAT's Influence on Health Warnings
Once upon a time in Kenya, health warnings on nicotine pouches were set to be big and bold. That is until British American Tobacco (BAT) played the "investment withdrawal" card. The Kenyan government, not wanting to lose out on a shiny new factory in their capital, decided to turn down the volume on those health warnings. After exchanges between BAT and the Kenyan Ministry of Health, the size of the warning label was reduced to a tiny whisper of, “This product contains nicotine and is addictive.” Velo nicotine pouches are all the rage globally, and they've caught the eye of Kenya’s youth. TikTok is buzzing with videos of young Kenyans joining the Velo bandwagon, and there’s chatter about how these pouches are being sold in schools. Academics are raising eyebrows, and a leaked draft report from a government task force is sounding the alarm, accusing tobacco companies like BAT of eyeing the young crowd.
Ivory Coast's Dollar Debt Dance: Testing the Waters of Sub-Saharan Bonds
In a bold financial ballet, Ivory Coast is stepping onto the stage as the first sub-Saharan African state in almost two years to tempt fate with a US dollar bond issue. President Alassane Ouattara is not shy about his ambitions. He's eyeing this bond sale as a golden ticket to join the emerging market party, hoping to snag some of those sweet, declining borrowing costs. The likes of Mexico and Indonesia have been leading the debt issuance parade so far, but lower-rated African countries have been benched since 2022, when Angola and South Africa were the last to issue international bonds. Despite everyone bracing for a default domino effect in the region, Ethiopia was the only one in the region to default on bond payments in 2023. Ivory Coast's bond adventure might just be the one that sets the tone for a new era in African borrowing.
Franco-German Fund for Africa's Lost Treasures
Germany and France are digging into their pockets, pooling €2.1m (£1.8m) together to play detective with African heritage objects in their national museums. The goal? Maybe, just maybe, send some of them back where they belong. Launching a three-year fund, each country is chipping in €360,000 annually with a focus on former French and German colonies like Togo and Cameroon. The back-to-Africa movement got a notable nudge in 2017 when French President Macron suggested returning Africa's cultural heritage looted by colonial France. Fast forward to 2021, and France returned 26 artefacts to Benin, but then things hit a snag with opposition in parliament stalling a law on restitution in 2023. Germany, on the other hand, launched a database of Benin bronzes in 2022, and a year later, 21 bronzes originally nabbed by British forces were returned to Nigeria. But when it comes to returning items taken during Germany's own colonial past, it's a bit more complex. Case in point: Cameroon. Originally colonized by Germany, it was split between Britain and France during WWI. Turns out, European museums are sitting on a mountain of Cameroonian heritage items. A project titled "The Atlas of Absences" found over 40,000 such objects, with a mind-blowing 8,871 chilling in Stuttgart's Linden Museum alone.
Food for Thought
“Teeth do not see poverty."
— Kenyan Proverb