How the UN’s Blue Helmet Impacted Ibrahim Traoré
On 23rd August 2015, when Traoré was 27 years old, jihadists struck Burkina Faso, marking a turning point for the young soldier. He was still a junior ranking officer and hadn’t yet been deployed to the international front lines. But the attack brought the jihadist threat directly to his doorstep. The insurgency was growing, and Traoré, stationed in northern...
A Priceless Lesson from Congo’s Failed Coup
On Sunday, May 19, 2024, in the early hours, a group of armed men led by Congolese politician Christian Malanga made three Facebook Live videos (only one remains on his page) from inside the Palais de la Nation (President's office) In the first video, Malanga expressed that he and other soldiers are disillusioned with the current state of affairs, citing...
Traoré’s Blue Helmets Experience
The following year, 2018, proved to be a pivotal year for Traore. He was promoted to Captain and thrust into a complex and volatile situation when he joined the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (French: Mission multidimensionnelle intégrée des Nations Unies pour la stabilisation au Mali, MINUSMA) This deployment marked a crucial chapter in his military career,...
How Lab-Grown Stones Are Rewriting the Rules
They told us diamonds are forever, but the story is changing fast. The sparkle that once came only from deep African mines is now being born in humming laboratories. This is not just a shift in fashion. It is a tectonic change in power. Whoever controls the diamonds, controls the narrative. And right now, Africa is standing at a...
The power of ‘leaderless’ movements
Bobi Wine! Julius Malema! Inspirational figures, no doubt. But here's a crazy thought: what if they rendered themselves irrelevant by mentoring and elevating multiple leaders in their movements? This would ensure that they stop being the singular figureheads and sole leaders of those movements. Hear me out. Enduring, impactful movements must transcend individual personas. Such an approach to governance...
Why the British Built the Kenya Uganda Railway
I can still hear the echo of the hammer on steel, the hiss of steam engines cutting through the tropical silence, the ghosts of a railway that changed East Africa forever. The Uganda Railway was not just a transport project. It was Britain’s iron artery, laid across East Africa to pump wealth out of the land and feed the...
Houses, Diamonds, and Power – Qatar’s Quiet March Across Africa
I watched that Lusaka handshake and felt the weight of history. President Hakainde Hichilema stood beside Sheikh Mansour bin Jabor bin Jassim Al Thani as Al Mansour Holdings announced nineteen billion dollars for Zambia. The headline promise is 1.5 million homes. The fine print includes sweeping financial-sector changes, a national investment and development bank, and sovereign-backed investment vehicles. This...
How Africa can stop being a pawn and become the grandmaster
I grew up watching the board, not just the pieces. In Africa, we were often told to celebrate when one of our pawns reached the eighth rank and became a queen. Yet in the real game that shaped our continent, we were too often trapped in the opening, sacrificed for someone else’s checkmate. Today I want to talk about...
Kahawa Tungu – The Bitter Drink Sweetening Africa’s Eastern Coast
I grew up knowing that on the Swahili coast, real conversations begin with a tiny cup. We call it kahawa tungu. Many elders also say kahawa chungu. Either way, it is the same thing: strong, unsweetened, cardamom-kissed coffee that arrives in a small cup but carries centuries of history. When I sit on a baraza bench in Lamu or Old...
Who Gets Rich Off Africa’s Poverty
I keep coming back to a single graph. It shows the number of Africans living on less than $2.15 a day. More than 460 million people. That is one in three Africans. And yet this is the same continent that produces the oil that fuels Europe, the cobalt that powers Silicon Valley, the gold that backs up international banks,...
