Projections that assume the Global North will continue to over-emit help perpetuate inequalities and violate principles of equity, warn scientists. Experts say that certain assumptions in climate models end up putting the burden for mitigation on developing countries. Credit: World Meteorological Organisation. A growing body of scientists and other experts in the Global South are calling for what they see as “blinkered” and “neo-colonialist” assumptions in climate models to be addressed. They argue that scenarios presented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which inform ..read more

Debating Ideas reflects the values and editorial ethos of the African Arguments book series, publishing engaged, often radical, scholarship, original and activist writing from within the African continent and beyond. It offers debates and engagements, contexts and controversies, and reviews and responses flowing from the African Arguments books. It is edited and managed by the International African Institute, hosted at SOAS University of London, the owners of the book series of the same name.  General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (RSF) delivers an address after the Ramadan prayers and Ifta ..read more

Debating Ideas reflects the values and editorial ethos of the African Arguments book series, publishing engaged, often radical, scholarship, original and activist writing from within the African continent and beyond. It offers debates and engagements, contexts and controversies, and reviews and responses flowing from the African Arguments books. It is edited and managed by the International African Institute, hosted at SOAS University of London, the owners of the book series of the same name.    On March 11, 2024, the meeting of the representatives of the federal government of ..read more

Chakava is best remembered for publishing some of the giants of East African literature – Okot p’Bitek, Mazrui, Meja Mwangi, Marjorie Oludhe-Macgoye, and most notably (and riskily), Ngugi wa Thiong’o.   Henry Chakava (right) with his friend and collaborator, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, in 2015. Photo courtesy: Henry Chakava family. Henry Chakava’s passing is, without a doubt, the end of an era of a protracted struggle by the first generation of post-independence African publishers to locate the African book industry at the centre of policy-making and practices shaping education and the ..read more

Displacements, environmental damage, and CO2 emissions from projects in Mozambique and Uganda are just the latest chapter in a long story. TotalEnergies, the biggest hydrocarbons producer in Africa, has a majority stake in the controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project. Credit: Fridays For Future Uganda. Today, 28 March 2024, marks 100 years of the French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies. As we observe its centenary, it is time to reckon with the true cost of its legacy. It is time to acknowledge that the company’s relentless pursuit of profit has come at the expense of Afr ..read more

Despite being targeted by the police and courts, youth activists say the dangers of EACOP going ahead remain greater than those of protesting. Abdul Aziz Bwete (middle) with some fellow climate activists from Justice Movement Uganda who were jailed for protesting against the imprisonment of their fellow activists last year. Credit: John Okot. Eric Sskekindi, 25, vividly recalls the first moments after he entered Luzira Prison in November 2023. That hot afternoon, the new inmates were lined up before a warden whose words sent chills down their spines. “Do you see this small line?” the guard r ..read more

If Just Energy Transition Partnerships don’t serve the interests of developing countries or the West, whose purposes do they serve? The leaders of the members of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JET-P) with South Africa meet in Egypt at COP28. Credit: Simon Walker/No 10 Downing Street. If something looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then – the wisdom goes – it is probably a duck. But what if something looks and quacks like a duck but doesn’t swim, fly, or lay eggs like a duck? What should we make of a Potemkin duck? The hot new thing in climate finance At the COP26 climate talk ..read more

Debating Ideas reflects the values and editorial ethos of the African Arguments book series, publishing engaged, often radical, scholarship, original and activist writing from within the African continent and beyond. It offers debates and engagements, contexts and controversies, and reviews and responses flowing from the African Arguments books. It is edited and managed by the International African Institute, hosted at SOAS University of London, the owners of the book series of the same name.  Leaders from the recent Saudi-African Summit in Riyadh, November 2023   Roiling war ..read more

While maize harvests plummeted after Cyclone Freddy and El Niño, and look set to stay low, other crops have shown more resilience. A field of maize whose growth has stunted in dry conditions caused by the El Niño weather pattern in Malawi. Credit: Charles Pensulo. Farmers in Malawi are being encouraged to plant different varieties of crops as extreme weather makes agriculture more challenging. Dry conditions recently have led to plummeting yields of the national staple maize, which supplies around two-thirds of the country’s calorie intake. Around 80% of Malawi’s 20 million population depend ..read more

The one-size-fits-all Dakar II plan risks sacrificing biodiversity and smallholders for the sake of private interests. There is an alternative. The Dakar II approach to agriculture – with a focus on corporate hybrid seed systems, hi-tech solutions, imported inputs, GMOs, and large-scale monocropping – risks overlooking Africa’s rich diversity of needs, cultures, and ecosystems. Credit: Thomas Cristofoletti/USAID. Launched early last year, the African Development Bank’s ambitious Dakar II initiative, “Feed Africa: Food Sovereignty and Resilience“, seeks to usher in a new era for African agric ..read more