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Just filed my last piece of the year.
Bloody knackered but I feel so lucky to do this job.
Among other things, in 2020 I’ve reported on:
— How African politics is becoming more competitive. Young people sick and tired of their ageing rulers (1/12) https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2020/03/05/young-africans-want-more-democracy
Bloody knackered but I feel so lucky to do this job.
Among other things, in 2020 I’ve reported on:
— How African politics is becoming more competitive. Young people sick and tired of their ageing rulers (1/12) https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2020/03/05/young-africans-want-more-democracy
— Why well-intentioned efforts to improve property rights in poor countries have struggled. Crucial to understand constraints on development in much of Africa. (2/12) https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2020/09/12/the-quest-for-secure-property-rights-in-africa
— The war in northern Mozambique, from northern Mozambique. Sadly the conflict has only gotten worse, with a mounting humanitarian toll. Too often ignored. (3/12) https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2020/04/02/mozambiques-mysterious-conflict-is-intensifying
A nascent debt crisis in some African countries, most notably Zambia. A theme that will be hugely important in 2021, as it acts as a brake on the continent’s recovery. (4/12) https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2020/11/14/zambia-is-starting-to-look-like-zimbabwe-the-failure-next-door
I found reporting on covid really tricky and required humility. I believed African epidemiologists when they said that the pandemic would take a different form on the continent, but I still struggle with understanding precisely why. (5/12) https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2020/05/16/why-covid-19-seems-to-spread-more-slowly-in-africa
This essay on how HIV/AIDS changed the world, edited superbly by @emmahogan, was fascinating to work on. The pandemic that never ended in much of the continent. (6/12) https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2020/06/25/how-hiv/aids-changed-the-world
An important secular trend is that, because of demographics, technology and talent, African popular culture(s) will have an ever greater impact on the rest of the world. (7/12) https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2020/09/19/african-entertainers-are-wowing-global-audiences
Far too little academic research about Africa is done by Africans. (And yes, one could say the same about journalism.) So more power to @lwantchekon and the African School of Economics. (8/12) https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2020/05/21/trust-slavery-and-the-african-school-of-economics
Sizani Ngubane and her search for justice. The bigger picture here is the toxic mix of “traditional” institutions and failing ANC municipalities that make life such a struggle for the one in three South Africans who live in the former homelands. (9/12) https://www.economist.com/christmas-specials/2020/12/19/how-an-apartheid-era-deal-still-afflicts-the-land-of-the-zulus
The story of how a unique national park in eastern Chad, overran by Janjaweed in the 2000s, has been turned around. (10/12) https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2020/10/22/african-governments-are-outsourcing-their-natural-areas
All of the above took a fair amount of time and reporting.
But probably my post popular article of the year, about furtive boozy “tea’ drinking in lockdown Joburg, was something I wrote in 30 minutes after a night out. (11/12) https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2020/08/06/why-johannesburg-restaurants-are-full-of-teapots
But probably my post popular article of the year, about furtive boozy “tea’ drinking in lockdown Joburg, was something I wrote in 30 minutes after a night out. (11/12) https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2020/08/06/why-johannesburg-restaurants-are-full-of-teapots
Anyways, if you're lucky enough to get a holiday, I hope you have a great one—and that this Christmas someone looks at you the way Max looks at homemade gingerbread men. (12/12)
