🔅 Namibians pull down a controversial statue
Today’s Issue: Guess who built Zimbabwe’s new multimillion-dollar parliament?, Ceasefire in the DRC, Nigeria launches its new banknotes... ☕
Photo of the day: Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.
Markets
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*Data accurate as of the close of markets across the continent
African Central Banks: Over the next two weeks, seven out of 11 African nations are expected to raise interest rates to combat stubborn inflation.
Global Markets: Even though the global economy is taking a nosedive, central banks need to keep raising interest rates to fight inflation, the OECD recently announced. And out of all G7 countries, it predicts that Britain will have the worst growth over the next two years.
APARTHEID
Namibia pulls down German colonial officer's statue.
What’s happening?
Namibia is the latest country to jump on the statue-toppling bandwagon. A controversial statue of German colonial officer Curt von François was taken down in the capital city of Windhoek yesterday, following pressure from activists.
Why the anger?
The campaign to remove the statue was led by a group calling itself A Curt Farewell, and activist Hildegard Titus told The Namibian news site that she was "very excited" by its removal. She said Von François had "wrongly been called the founder of Windhoek" and that he was a symbol of "colonial oppression".
Von François was the commander of an operation in the 1890s that killed at least 80 people, mostly women and children. His statue was first put up when Namibia was under the control of South Africa, then led by a white-minority regime. It gained its independence from South Africa in 1990, the same year that anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela was released from prison.
Was von François the founder Windhoek?
On its website, the City of Windhoek said the present-day city was founded in 1890 when Von François laid the foundation stone of a fort, but the first recorded settlements date back to around 1849. So...maybe not?
The statue has been removed from outside Windhoek City Council head office and will be kept in a museum for now, but would be "re-erected" once a new spot has been agreed on, Windhoek city spokesman Harold Akwenye said.
ACROSS THE CONTINENT
Other Headlines
🇨🇩🇷🇼🇧🇮🇦🇴 African leaders are declaring a ceasefire in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo starting this Friday. The move aims to stop attacks by the M23 rebel group, who have been making significant gains in recent months. The declaration was issued by the leaders of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Angola, and former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta, after a summit in Luanda on Wednesday. If the M23 rebels do not comply with the terms of the ceasefire, regional forces have been authorised to use force to make them withdraw from their occupied territories. The M23's military spokesperson was not immediately available for comment, but the group has previously stated that only they can sign a ceasefire with the government.
🇿🇼 Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa delivered his first State of the Nation address at a brand new, multimillion-dollar parliament building gifted to the country by China. In his speech, Mnangagwa described the mountaintop chamber as “majestic”. The countries’ links date back to the 1960s when China helped train and supply guerrilla fighters in the fight against white minority rule. Since 2003, Zimbabwe has looked to China and Russia for friendship and assistance after falling out with Western countries that imposed sanctions following allegations of human rights abuses and vote-rigging perpetrated by then-President Robert Mugabe. China is also massively involved in building and financing big-budget infrastructure projects in Zimbabwe, including revamping major airports. However, unlike his predecessor Mugabe, Mnangagwa has sought to thaw icy relations with the West through an engagement drive that includes applying to rejoin the Commonwealth.
🇹🇿 A group of 21 Tanzanian nationals on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in Canada alleging the world's second-biggest gold miner, Barrick Gold, was complicit in extrajudicial killings by police guarding its North Mara mine. The plaintiffs in the claim, filed at the Superior Court of Justice in Ontario, include relatives of five men killed by Tanzanian police assigned to the mine, according to the filing. The lawsuit claims that Barrick "has had effective and practical control" over Tanzanian police stationed at the mine and that the company's security agreements with the police effectively make them the mine's "private and heavily armed security force."
🇿🇦 Britain and South Africa are teaming up on a new health and science partnership, which will involve research collaborations on vaccine manufacturing, genome sequencing, and climate change. The partnership is meant to “benefit us all,” according to British Foreign Minister James Cleverly. It’s all thanks to President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is on a state visit to London. King Charles rolled out the red carpet for Ramaphosa on Tuesday, hosting a banquet in his honour. Ramarphosa was meeting Prime Minister Rishi Sunak late yesterday to discuss trade and investment. South Africa is Britain's biggest trading partner in Africa, so this could be a big deal.
🇳🇬 Nigeria has just launched some brand new currency notes, and the Central Bank says they’ll help curb inflation and money laundering. The new denominations of 200, 500, and 1,000 nairas will also supposedly drive financial inclusion and economic growth. The naira is “long overdue for a new look,” Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said at the launch. More than 80% of the 3.2 trillion nairas in circulation in Nigeria are outside commercial banks' vaults and in private hands. Last month, Regulators announced a Jan. 31 deadline for old notes to be used or deposited at banks. With inflation at a 17-year high of 21.09%, the new notes should help “bring the hoarded currencies back into the banking system” and help the central bank regain control of the money being used in the country. Analysts, however, say that the newly designed notes would yield little or no results in managing inflation or in the fight against corruption in the absence of institutional reforms.
IN TECH
Google is shutting down illegal loan apps in Kenya and Nigeria.
Google is requiring loan apps in Kenya to submit proof of license to operate in the country or risk being removed from the Play Store. This action comes two months after the Digital Credit Providers Regulations took effect to protect borrowers from rogue apps, many of which had predatory lending practices and used debt-shaming tactics to recover their money. New and old loan apps in Kenya are expected to submit the requisite documents and information or risk being locked out at the end of January next year.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Proverb of the Day
“When the village chief himself goes around inviting people to a meeting, know there is something wrong with the system.”
— Malawian Proverb.