🔅 Sweden's Plan to Pay Migrants to Leave
How Coffee Farmers Are Fighting Back Against Bean Bandits
Image of the Day
Palmeira, Cape Verde
Market Mondays
Year-to-Date Performance:
🟢 Johannesburg SE: 83,829.99 (+9.02%)
🟢 Nigerian SE: 98,247.99 (+31.39%)
🟢 Nairobi SE: 106.44 (+15.56%)
🟢 Ghana SE: 4,381.86 (+39.99%)
🟢 US S&P 500: 5,702.55 (+20.24%)
🔴 Shanghai Composite: 2,748.92 (-7.20%)
🇰🇪 Someone jumped the gun on announcing a massive labor deal between Germany and Kenya. After reports circulated that 250,000 Kenyan workers would be heading to Germany, the German interior ministry quickly backpedaled, clarifying that the agreement doesn't include any specific numbers or quotas. Meanwhile, Kenya is doubling down on its commitment to helping Haiti fight gangs, pledging to send 600 more police officers to the Caribbean nation in the coming weeks. This will bring the Kenyan contingent up to 1,000 strong.
🇿🇼 Zimbabwe plans to cull 200 elephants to feed communities facing acute hunger after the worst drought in four decades. The country is grappling with the impacts of an El Nino-induced drought that's causing food shortages across southern Africa.
🇬🇭 More than a third of the 2023/24 cocoa output in Ghana has been lost to smuggling. Low local prices and payment delays have pushed some farmers to sell to increasingly sophisticated trafficking rings. Meanwhile, the country’s economy grew by 6.9% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2024, the fastest rate in five years, boosted by expansion in several key sectors. The strong growth represents a significant recovery for the producer of gold, oil, and cocoa, which has been grappling with its worst economic crisis in a generation due to skyrocketing public debt.
🌍 Investors experienced euphoria late last week in response to the US Fed cutting interest rates for the first time in four years. The Dow and S&P 500 hit record highs.
🇲🇿 Mozambique's presidential candidates are shaking things up by advocating for the renegotiation of contracts for the nation's "mega-projects" with developers. This stance has sparked a national debate about whether the country benefits enough from deals with multinational investors, but it also risks delaying the construction of massive liquefied natural gas facilities.
🇿🇼 Zimbabwe's stocks are soaring as investors seek refuge from the ZiG, the new bullion-backed currency that's at a record low against the US dollar.
There you have it - a whirlwind tour of Africa's financial news.
*Data accurate as of the close of markets across the continent
Spotlight Stories
Portugal's Colonial Legacy Gets a Family Photo Album Makeover
You know that feeling when you're flipping through old family photos and suddenly realize that your country's colonial past is staring you right in the face?
That’s kind of what happened to historian Filipa Vicente as she combed through the colonial archive at the University of Lisbon. After a decade of sifting through thousands of images spanning Portugal's former empire, Vicente found herself deeply unsettled by the nameless, likely non-consensual photographs.
"These are violent visual archives," she said, and honestly, we can't blame her for feeling that way
So, what's a historian to do when faced with a problematic colonial archive?
Create a counter-narrative, of course.
Vicente teamed up with Inocência Mata, a professor of literature at the University of Lisbon, to invite Portuguese families of African descent to dive into their own photo collections and create a new archive – one that tells their stories on their own terms.
The result is a collaborative exhibition that showcases the personal experiences of a collective history, offering an alternative to the images of one of Europe's longest-lived colonial empires.
From pregnancies to wedding parties, the photographs chosen by the 35 participating families reflect the intimate moments of their lives since 1975, when many migrated from Portugal's former colonies.
For Chalo Correia, an Angolan-born musician and artist who has lived in Portugal for over three decades, the exhibition was a chance to make visible a community that has long been invisible.
"I felt I understood everyone who was in those photos, even if I didn't know them," he said, tearing up as he wandered through the dozens of family photos on display.
The exhibition's location, the Padrāo dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries), proved controversial, as the hulking stone and cement structure was originally designed to glorify Portugal's empire.
But Vicente and Mata saw it as an opportunity to launch a "Trojan horse," reinterpreting the colonial space from within.
As Portugal grapples with how to address its colonial and slave-trading past, this exhibition offers a potent means of reckoning with that history.
By shedding light on the present-day reality of Portugal's community of African descent, it asserts their role in building the country and amplifies their voices.
So, next time you're flipping through your own family photos, take a moment to consider the stories they tell – and the ones they don't.
How Coffee Farmers Are Fighting Back Against Bean Bandits
There's a new threat brewing in Uganda: coffee thieves, who are snatching unharvested beans straight from the trees under the cover of darkness.
As global coffee prices soar, these bean bandits have turned their attention to the lucrative crop, leaving farmers with no choice but to take matters into their own hands.
These farmers have been waking up in the middle of the night to patrol their plots, while others are turning to more unconventional security measures, like dogs and even bees.
That's right, bees.
The idea is that the buzzing guardians will scare away thieves worried about being stung if they upset the hives.
Coffee theft is no laughing matter for Ugandan farmers: According to two of the country's farming associations, coffee theft has hit unprecedented levels this year, thanks to skyrocketing prices that have made the crop a prime target for criminals.
Farm-gate prices for unshelled robusta have jumped as much as 65% since the start of the year, reaching a record high of $1.89 per kilogram. That's great news for farmers who manage to harvest and sell their crops, but it's also attracted the attention of thieves looking to make a quick buck.
The problem is that many smallholders who live near the poverty line can't afford the extra security expenses needed to protect their crops. And even if they could, the damage done by thieves who rip off branches to strip beans away from farms can hurt the future productivity of trees.
The rise in coffee theft couldn't come at a worse time for Uganda, which is trying to boost output and exports. The government has distributed millions of free seedlings in recent years to help expand production, with the goal of reaching 20 million bags by 2030.
Sweden's Controversial Plan to Pay Migrants to Leave
Sweden, once known for its welcoming attitude towards migrants, is making headlines for a drastically different reason. The country's right-wing government has announced a plan to offer more than $34,000 to migrants who choose to leave the country and return to their homelands.
The move comes as a response to growing concerns among Swedish citizens about the influx of migrants from low-income countries, particularly those from Islamic nations such as Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iran, and Iraq.
A Paradigm Shift or a Xenophobic Overreaction?
Is this a necessary step towards addressing the country's immigration challenges, or is it a xenophobic overreaction that undermines the very values Sweden has long championed?
The Right's Perspective: Supporters of the new policy, particularly those on the political right, argue that many migrants have failed to assimilate into Swedish culture and have become a drain on the country's welfare resources. They believe that offering financial incentives for migrants to return to their home countries is a pragmatic solution to these issues.
The Left's Critique: On the other hand, liberals and human rights advocates argue that this approach is a betrayal of Sweden's long-standing commitment to humanitarianism and multiculturalism. They worry that the message being sent – that migrants are unwelcome – will only serve to further alienate and marginalize these communities, making integration even more difficult.
Moreover, they question whether financial incentives alone will be enough to address the root causes of migration, such as conflict, poverty, and persecution in the migrants' home countries.
Sweden's policy shift is part of a larger trend across Europe: Countries are grappling with growing public discontent against migration, and the rise of populist, anti-immigrant parties.
And while Sweden navigates this controversial policy change, it must strike a delicate balance between addressing the legitimate concerns of its citizens and upholding its international obligations to protect and support refugees and asylum seekers.
Food for Thought
“The old hoe is still a friend.”
— Ugandan Proverb