Africa

1. Fashion debut
2. Exporting morals
3. Art means business
4. Leading the NBA
5. Take my photo

Also, how one mogul wants to change Africa’s fortunes in pop culture.

Welcome to Semafor Africa, where we’ve had another fabulous week of breaking news and making connections at our World Economy Summit event in Washington DC on the sidelines of the World Bank/IMF fall meetings. We’re at the stage of the US political season where every conversation we had in DC somehow ended up always coming down to the outcome of the presidential election. We’ll be getting into the impact of this on US-Africa policy this coming week.

Before that though, we broke news about how Democrat lawmakers are trying to protect the future of the White House’s African diaspora council. We’ve previously written about how the council might not yet have had a huge and obvious impact on US-Africa policy, but it has a ton of talented individuals who will figure this out given time. The question is if they’ll be given time.

Whatever happens in the next couple of weeks will be notable to say the least. Africa policy may not be on the top of the US political agenda for either side — and is too often near the bottom of foreign policy discussions. And yet, in all scenarios we can imagine, this election will have consequences for Africa one way or another.

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Abidjan’s fashion week

Or $520,000. It is the budget for the very first Abidjan Fashion Week which took place in the commercial capital of Côte d’Ivoire from Oct. 10-13. It was successfully pulled together by the Ivorian designer Elie Kuame and his team with a third of the budget backed by ticket sales, and the rest by private sponsors and the Ivorian culture ministry. The Week’s shows were described as “flamboyant” by Le Monde Afrique, which noted the predominance of local designers but also work from neighbors including Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Senegal, and Cameroon.

US anti-abortion groups up spending in Africa

Right-leaning Christian groups in the US increased their spending for campaigns opposing sexual and reproductive rights in Africa by 50% between 2019 and 2022, according to a report by the Institute for Journalism and Social Change (IJSC).

The group examined filings to the US Internal Revenue Service of 17 organizations and found that around a third of the $16.5 million spent within the four years under review happened in 2022. That coincided with increased challenges to abortion laws in the US. Of the 17 organizations whose returns were analyzed, three are said to be named members of the advisory board of Project 2025, a policy proposal by the Heritage Foundation that has been widely described as a governance template for former president Donald Trump, should he be re-elected.

Most groups did not disclose details of their spending but one: Heartbeat International. It disclosed spending tens of thousands of dollars in Ghana, Uganda, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia.

A favorite Lagos art fair beats the odds

Art X Lagos will hold its 9th edition from Oct. 31 to Nov. 3. Previous editions have hosted exhibitions from over 400 African artists from 70 countries. Tokini Peterside-Schwebig, the fair’s founder, expects it to showcase the evolution of global perceptions of African art and artists.

💡 What does Art X Lagos seek to accomplish?

We introduced it as an art fair and have evolved it considerably over the last three years. We still present the leading galleries from across Africa and the diaspora. But now a huge part of the fair is looking to a multidisciplinary experience leveraging film, music, literature, publications, and special projects.

💡 Is African art making money?

We’ve seen major rises in the valuation of art from African artists over the past ten years. An artist today working on the African continent can have a very global career even while living in Africa. We come to it from a place of true love and appreciation for our culture and how that culture speaks to our heritage and identity.

💡 What should African art transmit to society?

In an ideal world, we should strive for art that empowers a vision for Africa’s future. Our theme this year is ‘Promised Lands’. There is a backdrop of difficulty and challenges around us in Africa. So, can we leverage art to take our minds to places — real or imagined — where we can design for ourselves what that land of promise looks like?

💡 Is it getting easier to organize this?

When I started this fair, we were at 360 naira to the dollar and we were shouting. Today, we are at 1,700 naira — we are tired, we can’t even shout again! So you can imagine what it takes to pull off this kind of endeavor in this economic climate.

Cameroon leads African NBA charge

A record-equalling 17 players from African countries featured on NBA rosters for the opening night of the 2024/25 season this week, even as the league eyes greater popularity in Africa and more talent from the continent.

Data analyzed by Semafor Africa shows that the number of players from African countries in the league has grown at pace over the past decade, from just six in 2014.

The growth of the NBA’s African contingent is starting to benefit from its ramped up activities on the continent, particularly its talent development programs. Cameroon’s Ulrich Chomche, the first-ever prospect directly selected from the NBA Academy Africa in Senegal to the NBA, was the youngest player to be picked in this year’s NBA Draft at age 18. He scored for the Toronto Raptors against the Cleveland Cavaliers in his NBA debut on Wednesday.

Cameroon boasts the most players from the continent in the league, with five. Among them is the 22/23 league MVP and Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid, who was born in Yaoundé, but represents the United States internationally. Others include the New Orleans Pelicans’ 20-year-old center Yves Missi (pictured), who made a strong NBA debut against the Chicago Bulls on Thursday — scoring 12 points, 7 rebounds and one assist.

Nigeria had four players on opening night rosters, including Precious Achiuwa for the New York Knicks, Josh Okogie for the Phoenix Sun, Adem Bona for the 76ers, and Charles Bassey for the San Antonio Spurs. Other African countries represented on the rosters include the DR Congo, Angola, South Sudan and Sudan.

— Martin K.N. Siele

When African photography resonates

The second edition of The Africa Center’s “Points of Resonance: Contemporary Photography in Africa” exhibition is underway in New York. Photography works of 12 African artists from around the continent and in the diaspora is on view until January. The exhibition, curated by Cairo-based artists Heba Farid and Zein Khalifa, and independent curator Sarah Sarofim, is hosting works by artists from South Africa, Ethiopia and Eritrea among others.

The organizers say the exhibitors’ works “explore the effects of colonialism, migration and changing identities”, while deconstructing narratives by retelling stories across time and space. The works also investigate the past, and question memory while imagining future possibilities.

— Muchira Gachenge

Weekend Reads

🇳🇬 Mo Abudu wants to change the way Africans — and all Black people — are portrayed in popular culture around the world. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the Nigerian entertainment mogul doesn’t hold back from sharing her hopes and vision for her company EbonyLife and African entertainment in general. “We need more depth, storytelling that connects emotionally, and narratives that resonate beyond the moment. I’d also like to see an end to the tokenism of Black content.”

🇸🇩 A new battleground has emerged in the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces: social media. Mohamed Suliman writes in African Arguments that platforms like Facebook and YouTube have been used to spread AI-generated disinformation and advance psychological warfare by both rivals to gain more sympathizers.

🇿🇦 Community members in the Wild Coast region in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province are taking on the oil giant Shell. This is about Shell’s oil exploration plans off the coast of the Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserve, an area the residents rely on for sustenance and their livelihoods. Barry Christianson writes in Al Jazeera that Shell is involved in an ongoing legal battle that has reached the nation’s Constitutional Court.

🇬🇭 Ghana’s tourism industry is getting a boost from the rise of surfing clubs and schools in the southwest coastal region, Marion Willingham writes in the Financial Times. Willingham locates the early beginnings of Ghana’s local surf community in Busua, a small fish village in the southwest coastal region. The boost has helped create jobs for surf and skate coaches, hospitality workers and filmmakers.

🇲🇿 Despite efforts to ensure political inclusion by competing political parties in Mozambique, the polarization attributed to claims of electoral irregularities has ensured citizens get the short end of the stick. Reflecting on the outcome of the Oct. 9 presidential elections, in which Daniel Chapo of ruling party Frelimo won, Natália Bueno posits the end of the two-party majoritarianism may be in sight.

🇰🇪 🇪🇹 For The Elephant, Soreti Kadir compares Kenya’s Gen Z movement to Ethiopia’s four-year Qeerroo/Qarree movement that emerged a decade ago in April 2014. That movement led to the eventual toppling of a 27-year dictatorship. Kadir notes that in both countries, it is the young people who faced extraordinary odds to change the course of their nations’ history.

🇳🇬 Hundreds of supporters are gathering weekly on Zoom to plot a potentially violent regional secession from Nigeria, learns Kunle Adebajo in an investigation for HumAngle. The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) advocates for the independence of Biafra, which includes the southeastern and south-southern regions of Nigeria. Led by a Finland-based self-proclaimed “prime minister”, the group raises hundreds of thousands of dollars on these Zoom calls, estimates HumAngle.

Week Ahead

Oct. 28-Nov. 1 — The 10th session of the UN Global Geospatial Information Management for Africa will be held in Addis Ababa.

Oct. 27 — Environmentalists in Libya are set to launch a tree planting campaign as tree cover decreases due to the impact of droughts, climate change and tree cutting.

Oct. 29-31 — The Africa HealthTech Summit will bring together ministers of health and ICT, national public health institutes, and healthcare professionals to Kigali, Rwanda.

Oct. 30 — Botswana will hold its general elections on Wednesday with President Mokgweetsi Masisi running for a second five-year term against three challengers in the diamond-rich southern African nation. After nearly six decades in charge of the country, the ruling party is trying to convince voters it is the party of change, reports BBC.

Oct. 30 — South Africa’s finance minister, Enoch Godongwana, is expected to deliver a mid-term budget speech to parliament.

• A clean energy ‘supermajor’ wants to expand its megadeal.
• The Senate ‘nightmare’: Whoever wins it can’t get comfortable.
• Billionaire John Paulson on Trump, tariffs, and the Treasury secretary job.

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— Yinka, Alexis Akwagyiram, Alexander Onukwue, Martin Siele, and Muchira Gachenge