It holds 62% of Africa’s bilateral debt which rose from 1% of GDP to over 15% in a decade  COMMENT | PAOLA SUBACCHI | The pandemic is confronting highly indebted poor countries with a fateful dilemma. As Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, lamented last April, …

Karimojong enduring attachment to their culture. Kampala, Uganda | DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | Notwithstanding the social- cultural stereotype often attached to the Karamojong, a north- eastern ethnic group in Uganda, the group is privileged to preserve it’s distinct traditional norm and practices in the contemporary times. A visitor to Moroto and …

This is why you are not alone ANALYSIS | JOHN ELLIS | TV viewing has become more important during the pandemic, but a sense of shame still lingers around it. Even TV scholars still use the term “guilty pleasures” to describe their enjoyment of reality TV or series which attract …

  During their campaign, U.S. President Joe Biden and his running mate then, Vice President Kamala Harris set out the following agenda for the African Diaspora: The African diaspora community is one of America’s most diverse communities, inclusive of people who speak multiple languages, come from different socioeconomic backgrounds, and …

  This interview from the World Health Organisation (WHO) conversations in science programme explains more about variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, how concerned we should be, and whether vaccines provide protection against these variants.  Vismita Gupta-Smith interviewed WHO’s Chief Scientist, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan. Soumya, tell us what …

Recent events show that Africa’s dependence on external sources of finance is no longer sustainable. It is time for the continent to develop its own lending institutions | HANNAH RYDER AND OVIGWE EGUEGU | Amid all the distress of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, progress on the African Continental Free …

But World Bank warns of looming danger ANALYSIS | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda’s economy could escape the worst effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and post one of the higher growth figures on the African continent in 2021, according to the latest Global Prospects Report of the World Bank released this …

Opportunities, Challenges, and why full implementation of the historic pact may take years ANALYSIS | THE INDEPENDENT | African countries began officially trading under the new African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) on Jan.01. It is a flagship project of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 to stimulate intra-African trade. In …

Here’s who will win and who will lose ANALYSIS | STEVE SCHIFFERES | The coronavirus has crippled the world economy. Global GDP in 2020 suffered its sharpest drop since the end of the Second World War, millions were unemployed or furloughed, and governments pumped trillions of dollars into their economies …

Chinese foreign minister Wang’s visit to Africa is another missed opportunity to seal deals ANALYSIS | THE INDEPENDENT | Chinese Foreign minister Wang Yi has been on a five-nation tour in Africa that started on Jan.04 and took him to Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Botswana, Tanzania and …