Africa

🇿🇦 Increased demand for copper around the world has led to the rise of criminal syndicates in South Africa. Copper, the world’s third most used metal, has become a prime target for armed gangs in Johannesburg due to its malleability and ease of melting, writes Monica Mark in the Financial Times. Vandalism of pylons and theft of copper cables have exacerbated days-long power outages, forcing some hospitals to scale back operations, businesses to close, and schools to figure out alternatives.

🇸🇱 Women fighting for a seat at the political table in Sierra Leone but have been met with stubborn resistance from the state, reports Isabel Choat in The Guardian. Women make up just over half of the West African country’s population but represent only 13% of MPs and 17% of government ministers. In January, President Julius Maada Bio signed into law the gender equality and women’s empowerment bill stipulating that 30% of candidates for elected positions and 30% of presidential appointees must be women. But women continue to grapple with a lack of opportunities in politics. Catherine Zainab Tarawally, an opposition MP from the north of the country, said women who try their hand in politics are told to “get back in the kitchen.”

🌍 The violence faced by West African migrants trying to cross into Europe is so extreme that many are lucky to survive, writes Martina Schwikowsk for Deutsche Welle. The abuse is particularly rampant in Libya, the country of departure for most migrants in the past decade. Algeria has been leading the mass deportation of migrants, with 10,000 migrants having been removed from the country between January and the end of March this year. Right-wing rhetoric has partly been blamed for fueling attacks against migrants, including recent remarks about immigrants by Tunisian President Kais Saied who called migration a conspiracy to change Tunisia’s demographics.

Eswatini wants legal cannabis but locals say that’s bad for business

THE NEWS

MBABANE, Eswatini — Plans to legalize the lucrative cannabis trade in the southern African Kingdom of Eswatini by overhauling a 100-year-old colonial drug law are being slammed by activists and farmers.

The critics say a new bill, which proposes legalizing the substance for medicinal and research purposes, will undermine a trade which for decades has provided a meaningful income for many — from grandmothers to young men — in a small economy with few employment prospects.

Eswatini, which is landlocked by South Africa and Mozambique, has a population of around 1.2 million people and, according to the World Bank, an unemployment rate of 24%. It has few industries beyond agriculture, textiles and sugar-processing.

The new bill, first tabled in parliament by the health ministry in 2020, will amend sections of a law passed in 1922 by the British who ruled the kingdom, then Swaziland, as a colony from 1903 to 1968.

But critics say the bill, if passed, will undermine small traders and likely only benefit the country’s elite.

Eswatini Cannabis Association (ECA) chair Saladin Magagula told Semafor Africa the bill’s focus is solely on creating a powerful new regulator called the Medicines Regulatory Authority. There’s particular concern that the MRA will be able to “import, export and trade in, by wholesale, cannabis and cannabis products.”

“They cannot be both the referee and the player at the same time,” Magagula said. “You cannot as an authority give yourself an export and import license while also issuing the same to people.”

Many cannabis farmers in Eswatini’s northwestern Hhohho region, who sell their crop locally and in South Africa, are opposed to legislation — despite police harassment and arrests under the current system. “Lomtsetfo (the law) might make things worse because the rich companies will become our competition,” a farmer who asked not to be named told Semafor Africa.

KNOW MORE

Eswatini cannabis, commonly referred to as “Swazi Gold”, is expensive and highly sought after in global markets due to its apparent potency. Two documentaries on Eswatini cannabis have a combined total of over 19 million views on YouTube. The crop’s reputation means farmers in the Hhohho region sell their harvest at a premium price to dealers and individuals in neighboring South Africa.

Tourists also visit places popular for cannabis cultivation in the Nkomazi valley near Piggs Peak. Mthunzi Matsebula (pictured), who runs a lodge in the northwestern Kufikeni area of Hhohho region that he says mostly caters to tourists who want to “smoke and relax in nature,” said many local farmers see the proposed law as an anti-poor measure to push them into poverty.

CEBELIHLE’S VIEW

Amendments proposed by the Eswatini Cannabis Association are likely to be ignored. That’s partly due to the group’s inability to exert pressure due to its lack of political influence, but the deeper issue is that Eswatini is an absolute monarchy. Political parties were banned in Eswatini in 1973. As a result, they exist but can’t deliberate on government policy or legislation. Their members are routinely harassed and jailed.

The ECA is proposing a structure that will be fully representative of other stakeholders. For instance, traditional leaders. “Many healers in the country prescribe cannabis to their patients,” said Magagula. “Agriculture has to be represented as well.” Magagula also said it is important for the ministry of health to listen to those in the cannabis-for-recreation space too.

Parties such as the People’s United Democratic Movement and the Swaziland Liberation Movement, formed in 1983 and 2021 respectively, simply can’t intervene to back calls for changes. Dissenters risk strict punishments. Bacede Mabuza, a member of parliament who in 2020 tabled a motion calling for the bill to be withdrawn to allow for further consultation, was jailed for being a vocal supporter of democratic reforms. Mthandeni Dube and Mduduzi Simelane, two other high profile pro-democracy MPs, are in jail and exile respectively.

ROOM FOR DISAGREEMENT

Eswatini’s minister of health Lizzie Nkosi told Semafor Africa that the legalization of cannabis will, among other things, give the country opportunities for manufacturing various cannabis plant derivative products which give a boost to the economy and thereby give current growers legitimacy and opportunities to be part of a new and growing industry. “All current growers are rated as unemployed — can you imagine how our employment rates would change?,” said Nkosi. She also said the new industry would also help expand the government’s revenue base.

THE VIEW FROM SOUTHERN AFRICA

More and more African countries are partially or completely legalizing cannabis, in keeping with global trends. Lesotho, for example, began issuing licenses for its sale following legislation passed in 2008 and 2018. South Africa permitted the use, possession and cultivation of cannabis in private dwellings in 2018. Zimbabwe legalized cannabis for medicinal use in the same year, and Malawi followed suit in 2020.

Howard W. French, is an award-winning journalist, author and professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. His latest book is “Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War.” He is currently finishing a book on Black internationalism during the independence era in Africa.

💡 Which character in Born in Blackness best sums up how little is acknowledged today about Africa’s role in shaping our modern world?

I would have to say Mansa Musa, the early 15th century ruler of the Mali Empire. His pilgrimage to Mecca, during which he stopped over in Cairo, I argue is really the starting gun that sets off the race to modernity. Mansa Musa distributed 18 tons of gold in acts of patronage, hoping to put Mali on the map as a new global Muslim power to be reckoned with. 

💡 What’s one story you covered as a young journalist in Africa in the 1980s, that you believe we’re still seeing its impact playing out today? I lived in Côte d’Ivoire for many years and experienced a good portion of Houphouët-Boigny’s rule. During this time, I also traveled very often to Ghana, and I have always been fascinated by the different paths these two countries took after independence. This actually relates quite deeply to the book I am trying to complete now, which is about the political emancipation of Africans bunched toward the middle of the last century. I think African independence was one of the most important events anywhere in the last century, and the advent of political freedom in Africa is a lot more closely related to the conquest of citizens’ rights in the same era by African Americans than most people realize.

💡 How has the African American understanding of their own African heritage evolved in your lifetime?

I think that, by and large, Africans and African Americans know each other very poorly and this comes at great cost to both of these groups. Each has the potential to be one of the other’s greatest resources in so many respects, but after a period of very hopeful connections forged mostly in the 1950s and ’60s, much of the sense of mutual identification and common cause has dissipated.

💡 What is one area of Africa coverage you encourage your students to pursue to drive better coverage of the continent by global media?

I tell my students to push African voices to the fore when they write about the continent. Break out of the stale and long-practiced mold of depending on the views of Western (or other non-African) experts for everything.

💡 What African city’s cuisine do you miss most often?

I find cuisine chauvinism a little tiresome, but pound for pound, I find the cuisine of Abidjan to be pretty impressive. Nigeria, meanwhile, is like China or India because of its vastness and regional variety.

— Yinka

*Read and share a longer version of this interview here.

On May 4, the South African Reserve Bank rolled out new designs of all its banknotes and coins for the first time in about ten years. One key reason was to update anti-counterfeiting features. The new notes still all feature an image of South Africa’s first democratically-elected president, Nelson Mandela. One change is that the colors have been made “more vibrant”, say bank staff. Also notable is the depiction of the ‘big five’ animals — lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and African buffalo — on the notes which now include a family of each animal on the reverse of each note. There has been some controversy around an apparent misspelling of the word for ‘reserve bank’ in the Xitsonga language on the 100 rand note. However, the chair of the Xitsonga national language body suggests it’s more of a debate over grammar than a typo.

Where do Nigeria’s returned Benin Bronzes belong?

➞ What happened? Nigeria’s outgoing president Muhammadu Buhari this week declared that ownership of Benin Bronzes and other items recently restituted from Germany, would be handed over to the Oba (King) of Benin, the southern Nigerian city. The bronzes were looted from the traditional palace of the then Oba in 1897 by British soldiers and ended up in Germany for 125 years until they were returned last December.

➞ So why are some Europeans calling this restitution process a “fiasco”? Some German art historians are furious at what they say is a change of plan and claim the artifacts “have vanished into a private collection instead of being exhibited in a museum as promised.”

➞ What do Nigerian artists and academics think? Many are not impressed with the Western uproar over this. “I am amazed that people are reacting this way and writing in the Western press that it is a ‘fiasco’,” said Peju Layiwola, an artist, professor of art history and a trustee of the proposed Royal Museum in Benin. “The Oba never said he will be taking the works and keeping them in the palace.”

Nigerian-American artist Victor Ehikhamenor described the criticism as “neocolonial propaganda” and argued that the king’s palace is not a private building but an institution recognized by the Nigerian government. “I think it’s insulting for them to want to dictate where the works are kept and how they are managed after returning them.”

➞ How will this impact future negotiations for the restitution of more artifacts to Nigeria?

“Much will depend on the future whereabouts of the Benin Bronzes that have been restituted already,” Professor Matthias Goldmann, a European legal scholar, told Semafor Africa. “Nevertheless, I expect future restitution to also be made unconditionally. Only funding of museums, etc, might depend on the objects actually going into the funded institutions.”

— Uwagbale Edward-Ekpu, in Abuja, Nigeria

Bunny chow, one of South Africa’s most popular street foods, is made by hollowing out half a loaf of white bread and filling it with curry. A sambal relish is served on the side. The bread that was removed doesn’t go to waste — it’s dipped into the thick gravy overflowing from the loaf.

It’s a dish with Indian roots that, oddly enough, isn’t found in India. The dish originated in the eastern coastal city of Durban, which is home to a large Indian population. And the name “bunny” stems from the word “Bania”, an Indian caste term referring to merchants. It became a meal of choice for Indian and Black workers who during apartheid were barred from most restaurants.

Bunnies can be made with chicken, mutton, or vegetables but the gravy is the real star of the show. Garam, cinnamon, cardamom, fennel seeds, mixed masala, ginger, and chillies form the basis of this aromatic, hearty, and cost-effective dish.

— Marché Arends in Cape Town

• Energy transition will take center stage at the Enlit Africa 2023 conference in Cape Town, where power industry figures will gather. (May 16-18)
• Business leaders, and government officials meet at the Africa Trade and Investment Global Summit in Dubai to discuss international trade and foreign direct investment in the continent. (May 14-16)
• The 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in New York will feature the work of more than 80 artists from Africa and its diaspora. (May 18-21)

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— Yinka, Alexis Akwagyiram, Marché Arends, Alexander Onukwue, and Muchira Gachenge