The Rwandan model can’t be replicated easily given that it depends heavily on political dominance and tight, centralised control of patronage networks.
Hundreds of thousands of Portuguese have migrated to Angola since the European financial crisis in 2008.
Niko Nomad/Shutterstock
Migrants leave poor countries for a better life in richer ones. But the migration of Portuguese to Angola after Europe’s 2008 financial crisis shows how roles can be reversed.
South Africa’s governing African National Congress has begun the process of choosing its leaders.
EPA-EFE/Kim Ludrick
The ANC’s elective conference is important for the party and South Africa. This is because the person chosen to lead the governing party since 1994, has gone on to become president.
Supporters of vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, symbolized by a crocodile toy, celebrate the end of the Mugabe era in Harare on November 22.
Stefan Heunis/AFP
The political crisis in Zimbabwe reveals the shortcomings of African intergovernmental organisations and their (in)capacity to guarantee democratic functioning in the member states.
Guests and delegates attend the opening of the Pan African Parliament’s second sitting in Midrand, Johannesburg.
Reuters/Juda Ngwenya
The limited “consultative and advisory powers” of the Pan African Parliament hamper the African Union’s ability to achieve a prosperous and peaceful Africa as envisioned in its Agenda 2063.
Mugabe tried to impose his wife on his party as his chosen successor.
Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters
Are we witnessing the end of an era in which dictators stayed in power for decades? If so this must be good not only for Angola and Zimbabwe but for southern Africa as a whole.
Africa has focused on tackling undernutrition caused by low calorie diets.
IFPRI
Policy choices made by Senegal, Ghana, Rwanda, Angola, Cameroon, Ethiopia and Togo over the past 15 years have led to significant reductions in child undernourishment.
Chishuru, a male African elephant, indicates a target scent during trials.
Graham Alexander
Elephants have the highest count of olfactory receptor genes of any species tested to date. This suggests that they may be the best smellers in the animal kingdom.
Tapping into ancient DNA can help us understand ancient humans’ movements and lives.
Illustration: Marlize Lombard, Maryna Steyn and Anders Högberg
Archaeology is not only about stones and bones: it is mainly about the people of the past. DNA is one way to get from the stones and the bones to the people and their stories.
Supporters of Joao Lourenco and the ruling MPLA during an election campaign rally in Luanda.
EPA/Manuel de Almeida
Angola’s recent election results showed the ruling MPLA losing support across the country. If opposition claims are to be taken seriously, the losses could be more severe than they appear.
João Lourenço, set to become Angola’s president, is unlikely to bring any major changes.
EPA/Manuel de Almeida
Angola’s president-elect, João Lourenço, has a reputation for relative probity. But, he’s unlikely to rock the boat as Eduardo dos Santos remains party chairman.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is one of many African leaders to have gone abroad for medical treatment.
Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde
Health care systems in many African countries are very poor. Instead of fixing them, many African leaders seek medical attention abroad incurring huge bills which are ultimately paid by taxpayers.
A woman votes in Zambia. Beyond multi-party systems and regular elections, many countries resemble very little of true democracies.
GovernmentZA/Flickr
Democracy is in a parlous state in many countries in southern Africa. Autocrats hold onto power, while electorates have little to choose from at the polls.
Rebel UNITA troops walk through a field twenty miles from the front line at Munhango, Angola April 29, 1986.
Reuters/Wendy Schwegmann
For a military battle whose outcome is still hotly contested 30 years later, the impact was so remarkably clear – independence for Namibia, peace for Angola and the death knell for apartheid.
An Angolan importer buying Havaianas in the market of Brás, São Paulo, Brazil.
Léa Barreau Tran
Brazilian soap operas are wildly popular in Portuguese-speaking Angola, influencing women’s fashion and creating a business opportunity for thousands of Angolan female entrepreneurs.
South Africa’s media landscape has changed fundamentally.
Reuters
The growth of new, vibrant, independent media sites and projects in South Africa have challenged conceptions of what a newsroom is. On limited budgets, some even fare better than mainstream media.
Still going: Robert Mugabe celebrates yet another year.
EPA/Aaron Ufumeli
Portugal used radio propaganda in its colonies in the 1960s against local liberation movements. Decades later there are still lessons to be learned for occupying armies from their failed strategies.
Fidel Castro poured troops into Ethiopia’s war with Somalia after describing Siad Barre as “above all a chauvinist”.
Reuters/Prensa Latina
A peaceful transition in the Gambia, taken together with hints of change in Angola and Zimbabwe, will portend hope that Africa’s democratic renewal is still alive.