Africa Up Close

Introduction 

Elections are among the most effective ways of promoting participation in governance, representation, and uniting diverse groups–where the process is free, fair, and just. Nigeria has conducted many elections and witnessed a plethora of electoral problems, which the roots lay in systemic disjuncture amid efforts by government and election management bodies to transform the electoral processes and safeguard the integrity of election outcomes. While there has been persistent agitation against exclusion, the government has made some efforts to use legislation and eliminate the semblance of disparity in opportunities for elective positions. The essence is to mitigate exclusion that countermands the quest for inclusive electoral process. However, monetized politics introduced and sustained by older politicians remain a disincentive for youth participation. The problem has become a dilemma for the extant politicians that are wealthy and influence the system in their favor and the emerging forces of youth agitations in Nigeria.

Due to the Russia-Ukraine war, a new global disaster is threatening to plunge Africa into increased risk of famine and deprivation. Ukraine and Russia are among the world’s foremost breadbaskets. Together, they provide around 30 percent of the world’s wheat and barley, one fifth of its maize, and over half of its sunflower oil. Ukraine is the largest exporter of sunflower oil, the fourth largest exporter of maize (corn), and the fifth largest exporter of wheat. UN Assistant Secretary-General Amin Awad said, “This war will have no winner. Rather, we have witnessed for 100 days what is lost: lives, homes, jobs and prospects.” The war has worsened a food security crisis that is already burgeoning in many countries. High commodity prices and supply chain disruptions are hitting the global community hard. The UN has also consistently stressed the threats of famine that vulnerable states around the world including Africa face as a result of the war.

It has been four years since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s accession to power. Back then, so much was on Abiy’s plate to address: internally, Ethiopia faced ethnic tensions, constitutional questions, ongoing protests, armed struggle, and human rights abuses, while externally, there were border conflicts with Eritrea and Sudan and international pressure regarding the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), among other challenges. The Premier began his tenure with a unifying swearing-in address to Parliament on April 2, 2018. The famous sentence from that speech, “We Ethiopians, while alive, we are Ethiopians; when we die, we become Ethiopia,” ignited optimism at home and in the diaspora. Consecutive measures taken by Abiy to open up political space, such as releasing political prisoners and journalists, lifting a draconian state of emergency, removing rebel groups from terror lists, and negotiating rapprochement with Eritrea, further strengthened his popular support and built expectations for transformational political and governance reforms.

Women on the outskirts of Addis Ababa on average walk 15 to 20 kilometers daily to collect firewood. Collecting firewood and fetching water from rivers or ponds is a daily reality for the vast majority of rural Ethiopian women. The journey is not easy; they encounter unbearable challenges including forest guards who chase them away from wooded areas, backbreaking bundles of wood carried great distances, and even sexual assaults, yet they must return home to sell this firewood and still prepare food for their family. The health consequences of using firewood for cooking are enormous, and continuous reliance on firewood also leads to deforestation and other ecological problems. The Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD) was inaugurated to address the growing socio-economic needs of the country, including saving Ethiopian women from the vicious cycle of the firewood-collecting burden.

At the end of 2021, the Ethiopian Parliament adopted a law establishing a National Dialogue Commission. International and regional diplomats expressed appreciation for the action, indicating that it is a good step towards resolving Ethiopia’s political problems and ending the ongoing conflicts in the country. A principled national dialogue could restore a measure of stability allowing for longer term efforts to address ethnic polarization and intercommunal intolerance to commence. Such a national dialogue must encompass a broad range of stakeholders in all three phases—preparation, process, and implementation—in order for it to succeed. However, there are concerning issues that should be considered before it is too late in the preparatory phase, as the approach taken will influence the ultimate legitimacy of a national dialogue.

“My umbilical cord is buried in South Sudan, and although I am disabled, I want to go back and build my country,” declares Mary, who has lived in Uganda’s Nyumanzi refugee settlement since 2013, when conflict broke out in newly-independent South Sudan. For her and many South Sudanese refugee women living in Uganda, the return home is eagerly anticipated. This goal hinges on the implementation of the 2018 Revitalized Agreement for the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS), which provides a roadmap for an inclusive, united, peaceful and prosperous South Sudan. Similarly, these refugee women are intent on contributing to peacebuilding, unity, and their nation’s recovery as they prepare to return. The case of South Sudanese women living in refugee settlements in the West Nile region of Uganda highlights the value of including refugee women in efforts to build and sustain peace, and their potential to be part of the solution in their countries of origin.

The Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) shows that among young women aged 20–24 years, 40.3 percent were married before the legal age of 18 while 14.1 percent were married before the age of 15. Of girls and women aged 15–49 years in Ethiopia, 65 percent have experienced FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) in various degrees.[i] These statistics rank Ethiopia as having the largest absolute number of FGM cases and the third highest rate of child marriage in eastern and southern Africa.[ii] The same demographic survey shows that a third of women aged 15–49 had experienced either physical or sexual violence.[iii]

Rebecca, a 28-year-old South Sudanese woman living in the Nyumanzi settlement of Uganda’s Adjumani district, was at the borehole when she first heard the news of a total lockdown. Home to nearly 1.6 million refugees, Uganda had closed its schools and suspended all gatherings, movement, weekly markets, and non-essential businesses to curb COVID-19 transmission. Like the other women fetching water, Rebecca was afraid of the new virus and how quickly it could spread across the refugee settlement. However, within a few weeks their fears had changed. Rebecca and other refugee women peace mediators, who regularly resolve or refer conflict cases in the community, had received several reports of domestic violence, defilement of out-of-school girls, and family disputes over dwindling food rations during lockdown. Local council leaders and local courts were not able to take or hear cases. Refugee women could not mediate conflicts or follow up on reports of violence as this was not considered an essential service.

The riots that broke out across South Africa in July, 2021, leaving nearly 350 people dead, marked the worst violence in the country since the end of apartheid in 1994. The immediate trigger of the unrest—former President Jacob Zuma’s jailing for contempt of court amid sprawling corruption charges—belied a much deeper cause fueling the violence: inequality and a lack of opportunity for black South Africans. Though dubbed the “rainbow nation,” the legacy of apartheid in South Africa remains strong, with whites still possessing vastly disproportionate economic influence. As recently as 2016, more than 90 percent of wealth in South Africa was controlled by 10 percent of the population—who were mostly white.

The implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) on January 1, 2021 can be regarded as a turning point for African regional and international trade.