Southern Africa Archive

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Associate Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. France’s new president, Emmanuel Macron, visited Africa for the first time as head of state on Friday, traveling to northern Mali, where France led an intervention to drive out Islamist extremists in 2013. Greeted by Mali’s president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, in the northern city of Gao, where French troops are still stationed, Macron offered a vision largely in line with what he espoused during the campaign: tough talk on terrorism and an emphasis on the need for development so that […]

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series about China’s One Belt, One Road infrastructure initiative, also known as the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. In January, Chinese Foreign Minster Wang Yi started his annual Africa tour with a stop in Madagascar’s capital, Antananarivo—a sign of the importance Beijing places on Madagascar’s role in the One Belt, One Road initiative. Last month, during Malagasy President Hery Rajaonarimampianina’s state visit to Beijing, the two countries signed several agreements to accelerate Chinese investment in energy, aviation, transportation, ports and airport construction. In an […]

The political opposition in Zimbabwe to President Robert Mugabe is about to test the old adage that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. On April 19, two opposition leaders—former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and former Vice President Joice Mujuru—announced that they would seek to create a coalition in an effort to deny Mugabe another five-year term in 2018. But will it succeed where successive efforts have failed? In theory, defeating Mugabe should not be terribly difficult. He has led Zimbabwe as president or prime minister since 1980. Under his watch, the country has gone from being one of […]