Africa Here and NOW

Can Africa's leaders gathering in Beijing for the Forum on the China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) get more out of the relationship than in the past? Historically, China has imported African raw commodities with little or nothing added to the value of the metals and minerals. Now, with demand on the rise for Africa's vast supply of critical metals and minerals that are vital for the transition to net zero carbon emissions, the continent's leaders could demand greater benefits for their own economies. We ask COBUS VAN STADEN, of the China Global South Project, what to expect.Oxitech, a British biotech firm, has begun releasing genetically modified mosquitos in Djibouti in a bid to curb the surge in malaria cases there. We ask the firm's CEO, GREY FRANDSEN, whether it is actually possible to create a 'friendly' mosquito.ASMAA HAMZAOUI has become Morocco's first female master of gnawa music - a genre that dates back centuries and was introduced by West African slaves. Asmaa tells us how she's been received by her fellow gnawa masters who are, and always have been, men. And for those who are unfamiliar with gnawa, Asmaa explains it and we see her perform with her all-female band, Bnat Timbuktu.DONU tells us about the Africans who have volunteered to fight in the Ukrainian army against Russia.And PATRICK has been to Portugal to assess the official review of its colonial past, and the movement to counter that rosy narrative with a far less flattering account of Lisbon's exploits in its former colonies.

Legendary Ghanaian artist, ABLADE GLOVER, talks exclusively to Africa Here and Now on the occasion of his 90th birthday and the opening of his 10th exhibition atLondon’s October Gallery, Inner Worlds, Outer Journeys. He takes us through seven decades of loading his palette knife with oils to create dense, mainly urban scenes. He explains his love of Accra life and the hustle and bustle. His work has been described as extracting order from disorder. “I seem to study the aesthetic of the chaotic phenomenon” he’s reported to have once said. Ablade recalls that it was independent Ghana’s first President, KWAME NKRUMAH, who helped him get his first scholarship to study in the UK. Not only famed for his vibrant paintings, Ablade Glover is renowned for encouraging and inspiring younger artists. His gallery, the Artists Alliance, on Accra’s seafront, is one of the great spaces in which their work is featured.

We talk to ADAMA GAYE, former ECOWAS director of communications, and journalist and Chatham House consulting fellow, PAUL MELLY about the West African bloc’s future as Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali form their own breakaway group. Adama tells us the 15 member ECOWAS is facing a ‘death threat’ because of the loss of three of its founding countries. Senegal’s new president BASSIROU DIOMAYE FAYE is given the job of trying to woo them back to the clan. Has he been given a fool’s errand?Zimbabwe’s best-known journalist and activist, HOPEWELL CHIN’ONO tells us about his campaign to get young people to register to vote. We ask him whether there’s an appetite in Zim to follow the lead of Kenya’s Gen Z after their protests succeeded in getting a much-hated bill withdrawn. Hopewell spells out the repressive conditions under which Zimbabwe’s young people live. Daddy Hope himself has been jailed at least 3 times merely for doing his job and exposing corruption.Education minister, CONRAD SACKEY tells us about an app he’s rolling out in Sierra Leone’s schools to get accurate information about both students and teachers. He’s found more than half the teachers on the government’s payroll of participating schools were more absent than their pupils! The app is called Wi De Ya – We are Here in Krio. Hear me have a go at Wi De Ya.On day one KEIR STARMER dropped the controversial policy of sending those who’d entered the country unofficially to Rwanda. His Foreign Secretary, DAVID LAMMY, has promised to ‘re-engage’ with Africa. PATRICK speculates (intelligently, of course) about what that could mean for the continent.

Battered by drought and flooding, laid low by more than 30 years of civil war, as SOMALIA prepares to accede to a seat on the UN Security Council and joins the East African Community, we ask a senior member of the Prime Minister’s Office could the hostilities between Mogadishu and Addis Ababa over Somaliland descend into all -out war? Plus, why are so many Somali baby girls being named Istanbul? ABDIHAKIM AINTE, Director of Climate Change and Food Security talks to Africa Here and Now.MALAWI’s government has embarked on an ambitious programme of digitisation and AI to improve service delivery and governance. We ask MARTIN KALIMA, Manager for Tech and Digital Transformation in Malawi for the Tony Blair Institute, how is digital transformation even possible when fewer than 20% of Malawians have access to electricity? Guest panellist, VERONIQUE EDWARDS, recalls the introduction of the Double Decker Bus and how locals were perplexed by the absence of an additional driver on the top deck.VERONIQUE also draws our attention to the ongoing conflict in her home country, CAMEROON which is enduring an insurgency whose fighting groups have now splintered, and few know who is fighting for what. What started as a secession bid by Anglophone Cameroonians has now descended, Vero says, into chaos with millions of people too afraid to return to their villages.PATRICK, with a very intermittent connection in Paris, manages to tell us about the mood in France as the far right look set to make advances in legislative elections and why that matters to Africa and to Africans. Even Les Blues are concerned.

In South Africa the race is on to find a government of national unity. Parliament must sit by June 16 to elect a new president. Will the ANC appease the markets and investors by joining with the DA and risk widening the rifts in its ranks? Or will it take the ‘Chernobyl option’ of joining with the leftists of Malema’s EFF and former president Zuma’s MK party? We get the views of lawyer, businessman and author OYAMA MBANDLA whose new book ‘The Soul of a Nation’ reflects on where the ANC has gone wrong and proposes a new season of national dialogue.THE SOUL OF A NATION by Oyama Mbandla, published by Tafelberg.WALEED MADIBO, Sudanese Governance and International Development expert, founder and President of Sudan Policy Forum outlines the contours of his country’s civil war. After more than a year of fighting, almost 3 million people in the west are at risk of being shelled or of starving to death. The battle for El Fasher could determine the outcome of this brutal war that is ravaging Sudan.Patrick explains why a slew of African leaders have been feted in Seoul and a handful are invited to Georgia Meloni’s G7 party in Italy.Why is the TV provider, Multi Choice Nigeria being rapped over the knuckles for increasing its charges? It’s been fined $100 million and told to give all its customers a free month….just in time for a big, international football tournament. Is that a coincidence? A question for economist KELVIN EMMANUEL.

Chigozie talks with Donu about his new novel – The Road to The Country – a war novel which documents Nigeria’s Biafran civil war. In a frank exchange, he tells Donu this is the story he has always wanted to tell even though he was born almost two decades after the war ended. He tells us that it was so emotionally challenging to write this book, that he missed his deadline – it took much longer than he had anticipated.The Road to the Country is his third novel, both of his earlier books made Booker Prize shortlists. The Fishermen and An Orchestra of Minorities were international best sellers. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages. He reveals that he never reads his books once they are written! Plus, he tells us what his next project is likely to be.