Your Own Hand Sold You: Voluntary servitude in the Francafrique
[hr] In the CFA franc, the French colonial mission in West Africa found a way to ensure a paternalist and pernicious stranglehold on the economies of a vast region of the continent. Critics are vociferous and persistent in decrying its catastrophic effects on the socio-economic development of 150 million people in 15 countries over more […]
Four Days in June
By Moses Marz President Omar al-Bashir is looking out of the window of his SUDAN01 aircraft, a 1960-built Ilyushin Il-62. He is wearing a short-sleeved striped shirt and a grey vest against the cold of the air-conditioning. His binoculars are placed within reach on the table in front of him. It is a Saturday in June […]
Jeune Afrique
By Moses Marz In 1968, Béchir Ben Yahmed launched his first attempt at establishing an anglophone version of Jeune Afrique by producing annual “Reference Volumes on the African Continent”. The books are up to 450 pages thick and are presented as essential business guides produced by an “impartial team of journalists”. In 1972, Ben Yahmed […]
The Institute
Cultural institutes are considered effective instruments in foreign policy for any nation-state that can afford them. Moses März exposes the workings behind the walls of a branch of Germany’s Goethe-Institut and the pitfalls involved in the business of exporting national culture. At about 7.30am the director is already in her office. Soon, a queue of […]