🔅 USAID: Who’s Left Holding the Bag?
Zimbabwe: A Nervous Reshuffle & Cameroon’s Musical Highs and Lows
Good morning from… Can you guess where in Africa this is? (Answer at the bottom!)
Makossa’s Echoes: Cameroon’s Musical Highs and Lows
In 1972, a hypnotic sax riff from Manu Dibango’s “Soul Makossa” ricocheted across dance floors from Douala to New York—partying so hard that even Michael Jackson eventually “borrowed” its hook. Cameroon’s cultural cameo was epic: “Africa in miniature” beaming its unstoppable groove into global pop culture. But behind that brass-laden brilliance lay a restless hush—a sign that something fundamental in Cameroon’s cultural landscape was struggling to keep its pulse.
People often recall Dibango’s track simply for its feel-good, let’s-dance vibe. But more than toe-tapping entertainment, it was a statement: a Douala-bred musical form that fuses local rhythms with rumba and Western jazz could cross the Atlantic and stay on heavy rotation for decades. Everybody from Rihanna to Kanye West (and a certain King of Pop) recycled that iconic “ma-mako, ma-ma-sa” refrain, sparking questions about who really reaps the credit when global hits feed off African seeds.
If Cameroon is a patchwork of languages, cultures, and leftover colonial lines, its music is equally eclectic. Makossa—the Douala-born genre—held promise as a unifying jam for a nation grappling with bilingual tensions. Yet like many a great idea, it had to fight for the spotlight in a country that’s still reeling from structural and political complexities.
Over the years, the local music scene took a double punch: massive digital piracy that undercut local artists, and the unstoppable momentum of Nigerian Afrobeat and Ghanaian hiplife overshadowing Makossa’s old glory. Iconic names such as Petit Pays and Grace Decca gradually retreated from center stage, while newer talent—Jovi, Lady Ponce, or the protest-laced Bend-skin genre—struggled for the same level of global traction.
Yet sparks remain, and to learn more about how a renaissance keeps sprouting – from diaspora reimaginations of Makossa to homegrown emergences like Krys M – do yourself a favour and check out this intriguing article by The Republic.
America’s Foreign Aid Exit: Who’s Left Holding the Bag?
The United States has decided it’s done playing the world’s piggy bank, slashing billions in foreign aid and leaving developing nations scrambling to figure out what happens next. This is especially brutal for Africa, where U.S. funding covered everything from HIV treatment to malaria medication, vaccines, and clean water.
Last year alone, Uncle Sam shelled out $12 billion on global health. The Gates Foundation—the next biggest donor—forked over just $1.86 billion in comparison. Meaning? No single player can fill the gap, and the current lineup of would-be replacements isn’t promising.
China to the Rescue? Not So Fast.
China, long seen as the West’s economic rival, has built plenty of bridges and roads across Africa, often through debt-heavy loans. But when it comes to health aid? Not its scene. Beijing’s development initiative includes some support for farming and disease control, but its spending is nowhere near the scale of U.S. foreign aid. Plus, China’s economy is looking shakier than ever, meaning grand expansion plans are unlikely.
Philanthropists: Nice, But Not That Nice.
The Gates Foundation and other big donors are getting frantic calls for help, but they’ve made one thing clear: They cannot replace U.S.A.I.D. Some smaller private donors are setting up emergency bridge funds, but even the best efforts will only patch a fraction of what’s been lost.
And Last But Not Least: African Governments?
Health ministers at the African Union recently huddled to figure out how to fill the void. But here’s the reality: Most African countries have long underfunded health care. Nigeria, for example, just set aside an extra $200 million to make up for U.S. cuts—less than half of what the U.S. used to contribute. The Abuja Declaration once committed African governments to spending 15% of their budgets on health. The actual average? Less than half of that.
Meanwhile, the head of the U.N. AIDS agency, Winnie Byanyima, called the funding collapse “devastating” and warned of millions of preventable deaths. She’s pitching a “deal” tailor-made for President Trump: let U.S. pharma giant Gilead license its HIV prevention drug globally, saving lives, creating American jobs, and potentially putting Trump’s name on the end of AIDS.
With the U.S. retreating, some see a chance for a new global health order, led by other countries. But whether they’ll actually step in remains to be seen. For now, it’s clear: The U.S. was the single biggest lifeline for global health programs. And as it steps back, millions could be left in the lurch—with no obvious replacement in sight.
Zimbabwean Politics 101: A Nervous Shuffle
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa may have taken power with a military coup back in 2017, but these days he’s the one worrying about a coup against him. In the latest game of musical chairs, Mnangagwa just booted General Anselem Sanyatwe—a heavyweight in the army—and made him sports minister instead (which sounds like a good old-fashioned demotion to us).
This shake-up isn’t an isolated incident: Mnangagwa has already removed the chief of police and the intelligence boss in recent months. The reason? Analysts say he’s downright “protecting himself against a potential coup,” per political scientist Eldred Masunungure. War veterans—never a group to take things lying down—have threatened mass protests on March 31 to oust Mnangagwa and install their favorite candidate, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, who originally led the 2017 coup that toppled the late Robert Mugabe.
Mnangagwa, for his part, is telling everyone to chill out and respect the peace. (Translation: he’s uneasy but doing his best not to show it.) The war vets, meanwhile, say Mnangagwa’s made the economy worse and wants to cling to power beyond 2028. Their loyalty still matters: they fought in Zimbabwe’s independence war alongside current security chiefs. In other words, they’re old in years but potentially still big in influence.
Which brings us back to Anselem Sanyatwe: Arguably Zimbabwe’s second-strongest general, now heading sports, he was so integral to Mnangagwa’s original rise to power that he orchestrated the 2017 coup in a cameo role as head of the presidential guard. He also led troops who infamously opened fire on protesters in 2018. So is handing him a cozy sports ministry a clever ploy to keep him close (and harmless), or an attempt to kick him to the sidelines? Probably both.
Food for Thought
“Brief showers fill the stream.”
— Zambia Proverb
And the Answer is…
The photo is taken in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau! You can also send in your own photos, alongside the location, and we’ll do our best to feature them.