🔅 Zuma's Early Release Blamed on Overcrowding, Ethiopia's LGBTQ+ Community Under Fire
Plus, Tintin's Controversial Congo & Adventure Amhara Region in Turmoil
Photo of the day: Togo
Markets: Year-to-Date
🟢 Nigerian SE: 65,325.37 (+27.46%)
🟢 Johannesburg SE: 76,974.26 (+5.37%)
🟢 Ghana SE: 3,050.73 (+24.83%)
🔴 Nairobi SE: 104.00 (-18.41%)
🟢 US S&P 500: 4,464.05 (+16.73%)
🟢 Shanghai Composite: 3,189.25 (+2.33%)
*Data accurate as of the close of markets across the continent
Brief & Bright: Africa's Top Five Highlights
Zuma's Early Release: Blame It on Overcrowding
South Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma, who was sentenced to 15 months in prison for contempt of court, just got a break. He was granted remission due to... overcrowding in South Africa’s prisons. It’s all a part of a scheme to release low-risk offenders and ease up the strain on the system. The decision has been met with mixed reactions, with some South Africans saying the government should focus on more pressing issues like poverty and unemployment, and others saying Zuma should serve the rest of his term. Zuma’s jailing in 2021 sparked riots that left over 350 people dead. He was sentenced after refusing to testify before a panel probing financial sleaze and cronyism under his presidency, but was freed on medical parole two months in. An appeals court in November then found the release was illegally granted and ordered Zuma back to prison, but it looks like that’s not going to happen. Not this time, at least.
Tintin's Controversial Congo Adventure: A Bust of the Cartoonist Disappears
It was a case worthy of Tintin himself: a bust of the comic book character’s creator, Georges Remi (aka Hergé), mysteriously disappeared in Brussels. The mayor of the local municipality of Etterbeek later revealed that he had removed it for safety reasons after a glass box protecting it had been damaged. But there’s more to this story than meets the eye. The disappearance came shortly after the decolonization movement has been gaining traction in Belgium, and many are speculating that it was related to the cartoonist’s controversial 1931 comic book Tintin in the Congo. In it, Tintin was depicted teaching Congolese children about their “motherland” Belgium, and a scene showed a black woman bowing before him and exclaiming: “White man very great. White mister is big juju man!” This depiction was deemed ignorant and offensive by Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo, who has been campaigning for years to have the book removed from Belgian shops. But Hergé denied that the book was racist, saying that it merely reflected the way Africa was portrayed in the 1920s. It’s only recently that Belgium has begun to seriously grapple with its colonial legacy in Congo. The truth is out there, Tintin!
Niger's Coup: ECOWAS's Deadline Comes and Goes
ECOWAS, the West African regional bloc, gave mutinous soldiers in Niger one week to reinstate the country’s ousted president or face military intervention. The week came, and went, and it looks like the junta has called ECOWAS’s bluff. They’re in the driver’s seat now, and analysts say it’s unlikely that ECOWAS and Western countries will risk dragging Niger into a civil war by intervening militarily. For the most part, the streets in the capital Niamey are calm, but there are sporadic pro-junta demonstrations. Plus, the junta reportedly asked mercenaries from the Russian-linked Wagner group for help earlier this month. Many Nigeriens, however, are too focused on putting food on the table to join the protests—especially since ECOWAS’s travel and economic sanctions are taking a toll. It looks like the junta’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
TikTok: A Digital Platform for Hate in Ethiopia
Ethiopia’s LGBTQ+ community is facing a surge of violence, and much of it is happening online. Videos have been circulating on TikTok inciting violence against members of the community, and the platform is reportedly failing to take down posts that call for gay and trans people to be whipped, stabbed, and killed. In Ethiopia, where homosexuality is punishable by up to 15 years in prison, the situation has become so dire that some LGBTQ+ people are fleeing the country. The videos, which are in Amharic, the country’s main language, include one from a popular evangelical Christian pastor calling for gay people to be publicly whipped. In another, a TikTok user calls for gay men to be stabbed in the buttocks, and a third video shows a young man saying “we should find them and kill them.” The videos have been reported to TikTok, but the platform is yet to take action. In the meantime, public institutions are adding fuel to the fire: Last week, Addis Ababa’s tourism bureau told hotels not to allow “homosexual activities” on their premises, and the city’s police department launched a hotline for reporting “illegal activities that deviate from the law and social values.”
Ethiopia's Troubled Amhara Region: From Fighting to Curfew
The military has stepped in to reclaim control of six towns in Amhara, including the regional capital Bahir Dar, from militia fighters. The government declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew, and a bunch of international countries, including the US and UK, advised against travelling there. The residents of Bahir Dar, Gondar, and Lalibela say the fighting was “very bad”, with tanks in the streets and reports of 20 people buried in the Lideta area and a grenade killing a teenage girl.
Food for Thought
“Though the lion and the antelope happen to live in the same forest, the antelope still has time to grow up.”
— Ghanaian Proverb.
Are we hitting the mark?
Enjoying Baobab's updates? Spread the joy and share us with friends and colleagues — we'd be thrilled to have them join!
Feedback or thoughts? Just hit reply. We're all ears!