International Dialogue & African Perspectives

Since the launch of Transparency International (TI)’s Corruption Perceptions Index in 1995, Kenya has invariably foundered in the bottom third of the countries surveyed. TI-Kenya’s Bribery Index reports widespread bribery; some institutions, including the police, land registries and county licensing services are notoriously predatory.

Since January 2018, the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC), the entity responsible for the country’s electricity distribution, has found itself under siege by an organically mobilised and extremely angry battalion of Kenyans from all walks of life in their quest for energy justice.

Nigeria’s history as an independent country is very closely intertwined with the history of its oil industry. The “black gold” was discovered in a small village called Oloibiri four years before the country took the reins of its affairs and stopped being a British colony in 1960. No other economic activity has shaped the country as oil has.

Senegal is often referred to as an example of democracy in Africa. The country holds regular free and fair elections, has a vibrant civil society and a population protective of its democratic achievements. On the back of numerous anti-corruption efforts, Senegal fares comparatively well in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (67/180). However, according to a study by the Senegalese National Office to Fight Fraud and Corruption, 95.3 percent of the general public and 61.7 percent of professionals attest to the presence of corruption in their immediate environment. Although the country has had its fair share of grand corruption scandals, the term “state capture” has not yet found its way into the Senegalese vocabulary.

Cartoonist Godfrey Mwampembwa, known as Gado, talks about South Africa’s social situation 25 years after the end of apartheid.

The idea of a Fourth Industrial Revolution has captured the imagination of many in Africa and around the globe. Media headlines point out both the potential and the risk associated with advanced technologies for the continent.

For some time now, I’ve been trying to find new forms to address Afrofuturism. Making a factual introduction doesn’t interest me anymore, and I believe Wikipedia does it better.

How did the African future begin? It began with machines and pictures of machines. For most of us, it began in childhood.

While stories about the “fantastic” have a long tradition in oral and written storytelling in Africa, the continent is rarely associated with speculative fiction.