Category: Politics
Hichilema May Find Out Getting Elected Was the Easy Part, Fixing Zambia’s Debt-Ridden Economy Will Be a Lot Harder
A peaceful transfer of power took place in Lusaka on Tuesday when opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema (photo) became Zambia's seventh president in the post-colonial era. President Hichilema made clear right from the start that the economy, specifically reducing the country's heavy debt load, will be ...
Global Leadership Stories
The United States’s hurried withdrawal from Afghanistan revealed the messy space where the discourse about international leadership meets leadership on the ground. Even as many are criticizing the role that various Western fantasies of nation-building/democratization/containment/management have played in the debacle, it’s still unclear what a Western reckoning ...
Tshisekedi Keeps Promise to Re-Negotiate Foreign Mining Contracts, Launches Investigation Into China Moly
DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi is following through with his promise to review all foreign mining contracts, mostly with Chinese companies, to evaluate whether the deals that were struck during his predecessor's tenure are equitable.
Congolese Governor Orders Suspension of Six Chinese Mining Companies in South Kivu Over Environmental Violations
Théo Ngwabidje Kasi (photo), governor of South Kivu province in the Eastern DR Congo, ordered six Chinese-owned mining companies to suspend operations in a bid to "restore order" after weeks of mounting tensions between the companies and the community. Three Congolese companies were also ...
Up and Coming Leader in Namibia’s Ruling Party is Now Studying Political Science at Peking University
Armas Amukwiyu, a rising star in Namibia's ruling SWAPO party took some time off from his day job doing political organizing in the northern Oshikoto region to go to Beijing to study politics at China's most prestigious university. Amukwiyu is in Beijing now ...
Gyude Moore Reflects on Hichilema’s Victory in Zambia and Why China is Calling in Its Loans in Kenya
A lot of major developments this week in the China-Africa space following Zambia's landslide election victory for opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema and new debt repayment challenges in Kenya for the embattled Standard Gauge Railway.
Thierry Pairault on What China Really Wants From Africa
French media and scholars have long struggled to understand the nature of Chinese engagement in Africa, often framing the issue in the context of their own brutal colonial past on the continent. Much of the discourse on the topic in France is whether China is the "new ...
The Impossibility of Learning from Afghanistan
The story of China in the Global South has always carried a frisson in the West. A large part of that feeling has to do with China’s size, the way it simply doesn’t fit into any of the categories the West uses to classify and understand the ...
With an Eye on His Legacy, Kenya’s President Pressures Chinese Contractors to Finish Road Projects Before He Leaves Office
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta is turning up the pressure on Chinese construction companies building three major infrastructure projects on the east coast to make sure they finish on schedule before the president leaves office and prior to next year's election.
Karen Bass Doesn’t Like What China’s Doing in Africa But Says Americans Aren’t in Much of a Position to Criticize
Chinese engagement in Africa is an increasingly popular topic in Washington these days amid heightened expectations that the Biden administration is going to make the continent more of a U.S. foreign policy priority. On the legislative side, one of the key players pushing the White House to ...
Zambia’s New President Has a Unique Opportunity To Reset Ties With China
Hakainde Hichilema's decisive election victory to become the eighth president of Zambia in the post-colonial era is a gust of good news that Africa and the world at large badly needed. His win is an endorsement of democracy in a region where we've seen so many other ...
Zambians Go to the Polls in a Tight Presidential Election with No China-Bashing, For Once
Ballots are now being counted in Zambia's general election that took place on Thursday. Presidential incumbent Edgar Lungu faces opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema in a contest that has been too close to call for weeks. While Zambia's beleaguered economy and surging debt ...