Djibouti’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources is sending a high-level delegation to the upcoming South Sudan Oil & Power (SSOP) conference on November 24-25, bringing new opportunities for cross-border collaboration as the two countries seek to strengthen oil and gas ties, expand trade infrastructure and unlock new opportunities for energy investment.
Director of Hydrocarbons Wahib Ali Boulo will represent the ministry at the seventh edition of the conference, which convenes international investors and leading operators from November 24-25. The delegation’s participation builds on an oil and gas cooperation agreement signed by the two countries at SSOP 2022, as well as a new trade corridor initiative aimed at improving South Sudan’s access to international markets.
Djibouti and South Sudan have been strengthening cooperation in recent years under efforts to address energy bottlenecks and accelerate regional development. In September 2026, South Sudan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation James Pitia Morgan met his Djiboutian counterpart Abdoulkader Houssein Omar in Djibouti, where the two officials reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening cooperation and advancing shared regional priorities.
The meeting followed the signing of an agreement in August 2025 to develop the White Nile trade corridor. The initiative aims to establish river and dry port infrastructure in Juba, Bor, Malakal and Renk, linking South Sudan to international trade routes through Djibouti. Planned routes include road transport through Ethiopia and river connections along the Sobat and White Nile, providing a potential alternative logistics network for the landlocked country.
For South Sudan’s oil and gas industry, improved regional connectivity could create opportunities to strengthen equipment supply chains, reduce logistics constraints and facilitate cross-border petroleum trade. Djibouti, meanwhile, stands to reinforce its position as a regional logistics and maritime gateway, connecting East African energy markets to international investors and suppliers.
Against this backdrop, SSOP 2026 provides an opportunity to build on existing agreements and translate bilateral engagement into new commercial partnerships. As East Africa’s premier energy dealmaking platform, the conference connects governments, international operators, investors and service providers to advance oil and gas projects, infrastructure development and regional energy trade.
At the 2022 edition of the event, Djibouti and South Sudan signed a memorandum of understanding establishing a framework for expanding bilateral cooperation across oil and gas, investment and cross-border energy trade. The agreement demonstrated the conference’s role in facilitating government-to-government partnerships and opening new commercial opportunities across East Africa.
Djibouti’s return to SSOP reinforces the event’s role as a catalyst for cross-border cooperation, bringing regional partners together to advance investment opportunities and turn strategic agreements into tangible energy projects.
A strong slate of senior figures from Libya’s financial sector, global energy intelligence and development finance will participate as speakers at the Libya Energy & Economic Summit (LEES) 2027 in Tripoli from January 23–25. Their participation will bring investors and policymakers closer to the institutions shaping how Libya finances, evaluates and delivers its next phase of economic and energy development.
The speakers arrive at a pivotal moment for Libya. The country is seeking to convert renewed international interest in its hydrocarbons into sustained investment, while addressing the infrastructure, institutional and financing constraints that have historically limited development.
Mohammed Ali Addarrat, Chairman of the Management Committee of the Libyan Foreign Bank (LFB), will bring the perspective of an institution at the center of Libya’s international financial architecture. Under his leadership, LFB has placed greater emphasis on transparency, governance and digital transformation while expanding its role in supporting economic activity. The bank has also approved a $1 billion financing facility for National Oil Corporation projects aimed at increasing the country’s oil production above 1.5 million barrels per day.
Malinne Blomberg, Deputy Director General for North Africa at the African Development Bank (AfDB), will bring a broader development-finance perspective to LEES 2027. The AfDB’s 2025–2028 Country Brief for Libya prioritizes stronger institutions, improved access to basic infrastructure and economic diversification, with interventions spanning transport, renewable energy, agriculture, water security and non-oil value chains. The bank is also working to expand private sector participation and investment in the country.
Jennifer Jumbe, Director of Energy & Natural Resources at S&P Global Energy, will bring an international market perspective to Libya’s investment drive. With more than 14 years of energy-market experience, Jumbe advises government, financial institutions and energy companies on the economic underpinning major energy projects. Her participation comes as Libya seeks to attract international capital following its latest licensing activity and as investors assess the commercial potential of new exploration opportunities across the country.
Meanwhile, Cristina Tomé Martinez, Technical Research Associate Director for Upstream Energy at S&P Global Energy, will add specialist expertise to discussions around Libya’s upstream and Mediterranean energy outlook. Her work spans technical research and asset evaluation, making her participation particularly timely as Libya advances exploration and considers how new resources can be connected to export markets.
The participation of these speakers gives LEES 2027 a stronger connection between financial decisions surrounding Libya’s recovery and the energy projects driving it. Their combined perspectives will be valuable as Libya moves from attracting interest to demonstrating that capital can be deployed effectively, projects can be executed and energy revenues can support a broader economic transformation.
LEES 2027 will bring together government officials, national oil companies, international operators, investors, financial institutions and service providers in Tripoli for three days of discussions focused on Libya’s investment agenda. With the country pursuing higher production, new exploration and major infrastructure development, the summit will provide a platform for investors to engage directly with the institutions and leaders shaping Libya’s next economic chapter.
Wamkele Mene, Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, has been confirmed as a keynote speaker at South Sudan Oil & Power (SSOP) 2026, taking place November 24–25 in Juba. His participation comes as South Sudan deepens petroleum and infrastructure ties with regional neighbors, bringing the country’s energy investment agenda into a broader discussion around regional trade, market access and economic integration.
Mene’s participation follows his July 2026 visit to Juba, during which he engaged with government and private-sector stakeholders on South Sudan’s pathway toward AfCFTA ratification and the opportunities presented by the continental market. The country signed the AfCFTA agreement in 2018. During the visit, South Sudanese authorities highlighted the role of the platform in strengthening private-sector participation, supporting SME growth and advancing broader trade and regional ties.
For South Sudan, AfCFTA membership stands to advance regional integration across an energy sector that is inherently dependent on cross-border trade and infrastructure. As a landlocked oil producer, the country relies on pipelines through Sudan to move crude to international markets, while neighboring countries provide important routes for petroleum imports, equipment, services and logistics.
Recent disruptions have highlighted the commercial risks associated with this dependence. Damage to export infrastructure in Sudan disrupted South Sudanese crude flows in 2024, while the government has sought to strengthen complementary regional supply routes. In 2025, South Sudan and Kenya established a framework for petroleum-product imports through the Port of Mombasa and Northern Corridor, including access to pipeline and storage infrastructure.
AfCFTA membership would add a trade and investment dimension to these physical regional connections. Ratification would enable qualifying South Sudanese businesses to trade under the Agreement’s preferential framework, potentially reducing barriers to the movement of goods and services required by the energy industry while improving access to markets across the continent.
This regional integration agenda provides a strong backdrop to SSOP 2026. South Sudan is targeting an increase in oil production from approximately 170,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 230,000 bpd in the short term and 450,000 bpd over the longer term. Reaching these targets will require investment not only in exploration and mature-field redevelopment, but also in the infrastructure, services and regional commercial relationships needed to support higher production and connect projects with markets.
Mene’s participation will bring this continental trade and investment perspective to SSOP 2026. Held under the theme Resource Renaissance – Energy-Fueled Growth for a New Generation, the conference will connect government, operators, investors, financiers and service companies as South Sudan seeks to translate energy investment into wider industrial and economic growth.
Now in its seventh edition, SSOP has a proven track record of converting high-level engagement into actionable commercial and cross-border partnerships. The event has facilitated landmark agreements spanning exploration, production and infrastructure cooperation with regional partners such as Djibouti and South Africa.
To register for South Sudan Oil & Power 2026 in Juba on November 24–25, visit: https://apo-opa.co/4i84D8d
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Energy Capital & Power.
The Public Accounts Committee (Central Government) has criticised the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) for diverting Shs41.6 billion to activities outside their approved work plans.
This, according to the Committee, was done without authorisation by the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Hon. Henry Musasizi.
The committee, chaired by Kassanda North MP, Hon. Patrick Nsamba, said the expenditure contravened provisions of the Public Finance Management Act.
The findings are contained in the committee’s report on the Auditor General’s audit for the year ended December 2025, presented during plenary sitting chaired by Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa on Wednesday, 21 October 2026.
“The two entities applied a combined Shs41.6 billion to items that Parliament had not appropriated, without evidence of the Minister’s authorisation,” Nsamba said.
The ODPP spent Shs900 million on constructing Resident State Attorney offices in Katakwi and Yumbe outside its approved work plan, while the ministry of Justice diverted Shs40.7 billion.
“Savings on a budget line do not confer authority to spend on activities outside the approved work plan,” Nsamba said.
According to the committee, a big amount of the money was spent on court awards and compensation.
The report noted that the ODPP had filled only 600 of its 1,704 approved positions, leaving 399 prosecutors serving 149 field stations to handle heavy workloads, adding that out of 40,501 new cases received, only 23,184 were committed for High Court trial.
The committee also questioned the procurement of works worth Shs457.68 million for the Yumbe office outside the electronic government procurement system.
The committee report further raised concern over the malfunctioned Prosecution Case Management Information System (PROCAMIS), despite a Shs42 billion expenditure, since 2017.
Nsamba added that the ODPP paid Shs2.95 billion to M/s Graphics Systems for maintenance and support in 2024/2025, but key deliverables, including integration with other criminal justice institutions and an off-site disaster recovery facility, were not provided.
“Shillings 2.95 billion was paid under a contract whose two principal deliverables were not provided and the liability clause was not invoked against the provider,” he said.
The committee recommended enforcing the contract’s liability provisions, recovering warranted funds, establishing disaster recovery arrangements and auditing the system.
The Committee’s findings also revealed that infrastructure in Arua and Lira had remained idle since November 2022.
Nsamba said that the ministry of Justice reported contingent liabilities of Shs3.492 trillion, largely arising from lawsuits against government entities.
The committee recommended a litigation management strategy to improve tracking and management of claims.
The Committee also called for stronger financial accountability, improved staffing, functional digital systems and tighter oversight of public expenditure.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Parliament of the Republic of Uganda.
Speaker Jacob Oboth has called for coordinated planning, budgeting and implementation of Parliament’s legislative, oversight and representation functions, urging programme partners to turn review recommendations into practical action.
Oboth made the remarks during the annual review workshop for the Legislation, Oversight and Representation (LOR) Programme for the 2025/2026 financial year held at Parliament on Thursday, 22 October 2026.
Oboth said the programme must be planned, funded and measured as one entity to ensure that Parliament’s work translates into tangible improvements in people’s lives.
“The LOR Programme exists to serve the people of Uganda. When we enact good laws, scrutinise how public resources are used, and speak for our constituents, we turn the promises of government into real change in people’s lives,” Oboth said.
He said the workshop, the first annual review during the 12th Parliament, provided an opportunity to assess the programme’s performance during the first year of implementing the Fourth National Development Plan (NDP IV) and the Government’s Tenfold Growth Strategy.
Oboth challenged participants to examine whether laws at national and local government levels were being enacted on time, parliamentary oversight was producing the expected changes and citizens’ concerns were being considered during appropriation.
He outlined three priorities: treating the programme as one entity under the Government’s Programme-Based Planning and Budgeting system, ensuring ownership by all partners and actors, and strengthening evidence-based implementation through reliable data, clear indicators and timely reporting.
“We must also strengthen coordination with the Office of the Prime Minister, the National Planning Authority and the other programme actors, so that the recommendations of the LOR Programme translate into better services for citizens,” he said.
Meanwhile Deputy Speaker Tayebwa said the review had examined the programme from different perspectives, including its alignment with NDP IV and the Tenfold Growth Strategy, its institutionalisation and implementation, and its performance in the 2025/2026 financial year.
He said contributions from participants, including the assessment by the Office of the Prime Minister, would help improve programme performance.
“Two messages stand out first. First, the programme should plan, budget, implement and report on expected results correctively. Secondly, the programme belongs to all its partners and programme actors; and each of us must play our part in delivering on this programme implementation action plan for financial year 2025/2026 to financial year 2030,” Tayebwa said.
He urged the programme secretariat to consolidate proposals from the workshop and ensure they inform implementation of the action plan and the next planning and budgeting cycle.
“The recommendations from this workshop must now be turned into action,” he said, adding that participants should take the commitments made back to their respective institutions and follow them through.
Tayebwa thanked the Clerk to Parliament, the Parliamentary Commission, presenters, facilitators, the National Planning Authority and the Office of the Prime Minister for their contributions to the review.
Both leaders urged participants to use the review to strengthen implementation of the programme and improve the delivery of Parliament’s legislative, oversight and representation mandates.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Parliament of the Republic of Uganda.
President John Dramani Mahama has announced that Ghana will formally halt the export of unprocessed mineral resources by 2030, marking a decisive shift towards resource-driven industrialisation, local value addition, and national economic sovereignty.
Delivering the keynote address at the opening of the 2nd Edition of the Mining in Motion Summit in Accra, President Mahama outlined a phased implementation roadmap to ensure the nation’s mineral wealth directly catalyses domestic manufacturing, infrastructure expansion, and job creation.
“We have already imposed a ban on the export of iron scrap and non-ferrous metals. I have set a clear goal that by 2030 raw minerals must no longer leave our shores,” President Mahama declared. “Our bauxites, manganese, iron, lithium, and other minerals must support processes and industrial development here at home.”
President Mahama said the transition is anchored by transparent regulatory timetables, targeted legislation, and clear commodity-specific benchmarks.
He reaffirmed that government policy will pivot from merely extracting raw materials to building complete industrial value chains. Highlighting the integrated aluminium industry as a flagship priority, he stated:
“Every major initiative must have clear responsibilities, measurable milestones, and transparent reporting. In Ghana’s aluminium industry, our objective is to modernise VALCO and develop domestic aluminium refining, directly linking Ghanaian bauxite to smelting and downstream manufactured products.”
Reassuring the international and domestic investor community, President Mahama said local processing obligations will be matched by state commitments to provide competitive operating conditions. The Government is committed to deploying critical infrastructure, fostering technical skill acquisition, and establishing viable financing frameworks.
He observed that legislative action alone cannot build a sustainable sector without a predictable, transparent, and supportive operating environment.
“We must translate these frameworks into coordinated investments, regional infrastructure, and larger markets for African producers. Investors need predictable rules, clear institutional responsibilities, and prompt approvals. Communities need confidence that licence conditions and environmental obligations will be rigorously enforced,” he noted.
On the continental front, President Mahama rallied African leaders to operationalise the African Mining Vision (AMV) by aligning domestic laws and ratifying instruments establishing the African Minerals Development Centre (AMDC) to harmonise mineral governance across borders.
Domestically, the President noted that the industrialisation drive must advance broad-based Ghanaian participation. He urged that local enterprises must be empowered beyond auxiliary services to hold substantial equity, managerial control, and technological capabilities across the value chain—including fabrication, laboratory analytics, software engineering, and equipment maintenance.
The Summit, themed “One Continent. One Voice on Minerals. Aligning Africa’s Mineral Future,” convened policymakers, industry executives, and continental leaders to deliberate on the sustainable governance of Africa’s critical mineral endowments.
It brought together several regional dignitaries and traditional leaders, including the Vice President of the Republic of Liberia, H.E. Jeremiah Kpan Koung, Sr.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of The Presidency, Republic of Ghana.
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Ukachukwu Abaraogu, Senior Lecturer Public Health, Evidence Synthesis & Rehabilitation, University of the West of Scotland
Conversations around health progress in Africa usually focus on lives saved. And rightly so. Across the continent, people are living longer than they did a generation ago. Advances in prevention, treatment and public health have reduced deaths from many major diseases and improved survival for millions. But there is another side to this success story that receives far less attention: quality of life.
As a physiotherapist and rehabilitation researcher, I am interested not only in whether people survive illness, but also in how they live afterwards. The latest findings from the Global Burden of Disease 2023 study, to which I contributed, suggest that while mortality is falling, the number of people living with disability and chronic health conditions that affect everyday functioning is rising.
The study shows that globally, healthy life expectancy at birth increased from 61.1 years in 2010 to 63.1 years in 2023. But the gap between living longer and living healthier is widening. Globally, years lived with disability rose from 786 million to 990 million between 2010 and 2023. These numbers suggest that many people are spending more years living with the consequences of disease and injury. In many African countries, this is occurring alongside a growing burden of noncommunicable diseases such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
Health systems have become increasingly effective at reducing mortality, but they have not expanded rehabilitation services at the same pace. Many health systems are still poorly equipped to help people live well after illness or injury. This matters because health is about more than survival. It is also about whether people can move, work, learn, care for their families and participate fully in their communities. And that is where rehabilitation has a crucial role to play.
Rehabilitation can help people recover after illness or injury, maintain independence and participate fully in society. Yet it remains overlooked in many health systems.
To address this growing challenge, governments, health systems and development partners need to make rehabilitation a core part of healthcare rather than an afterthought. This means integrating rehabilitation into primary care, expanding the rehabilitation workforce and ensuring that services are available in communities, where people live and work.
Looking beyond deaths
To understand what is happening to population health in Africa, I worked with colleagues from around the world as part of the Global Burden of Disease 2023 study, one of the largest and most comprehensive health research collaborations ever undertaken.
The latest studies examined trends in life expectancy, causes of death and disability across the world. This provides one of the clearest pictures yet of how health is changing in Africa.
I was particularly interested in the findings related to disability. Public health discussions often focus on reducing mortality. But surviving a health condition does not necessarily mean returning to full health. The studies show that although life expectancy is improving across much of sub-Saharan Africa, the amount of time people spend living with disability is also increasing. These trends are increasingly visible in sub-Saharan Africa, where long-term conditions such as heart disease and diabetes are becoming more common.
Several forces are driving this trend. More people are surviving conditions such as HIV, tuberculosis and neonatal complications. At the same time, population growth, ageing and the rising prevalence of noncommunicable diseases such as stroke, heart disease, diabetes and musculoskeletal disorders mean that more people are living with conditions that affect their functioning.
From a rehabilitation perspective, this is a critical finding. It suggests that Africa’s health systems are increasingly caring for people who need support not only to survive, but also to maintain independence, mobility, communication and participation in everyday life. This growing need for rehabilitation is one of the most important, yet least recognised public health challenges emerging from the latest global health evidence.
What the findings tell us
What stood out most to me was not simply that disability is increasing, but why it is increasing.
For many years, policymakers, researchers and development organisations often viewed disability in Africa primarily as a consequence of weak health systems. The underlying assumption in many policy and public health discussions was that if healthcare improved, disability would naturally decline. The Global Burden of Disease 2023 findings tell a more complex story. In many cases, rising disability is linked to health system success. More people now survive conditions that were once fatal.
But survival often comes with consequences that can last for years or even a lifetime. The studies show that noncommunicable diseases are becoming a larger contributor to health loss across sub-Saharan Africa. Someone who survives a stroke, for example, may live for many years afterwards but continue to experience weakness, mobility difficulties or communication problems that require ongoing rehabilitation and support. At the same time, injuries remain a major cause of long-term disability, particularly among younger adults.
Improvements in survival from infectious diseases also mean more people are living with chronic health needs.
Africa’s health gains over recent decades are worth celebrating. But success should not be measured only by lives saved. It should also be measured by whether people can live well after survival.
– Health progress in Africa leaves more people living with disabilities: rehabilitation is the next challenge – https://theconversation.com/health-progress-in-africa-leaves-more-people-living-with-disabilities-rehabilitation-is-the-next-challenge-291906
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Joshua Davimes, Senior Lecturer in Anatomical Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand
South Africa endured its worst year of loadshedding (scheduled power cuts by the country’s utility, Eskom) in 2023. The power went off on 335 of the year’s 365 days, often several times a day. The country hasn’t had these planned power cuts for more than a year and a half since.
Much has been written about how loadshedding affected businesses, healthcare and the economy. But far less is known about the effect on people’s sleep.
Sleep is easily disturbed by the world around us, including light, noise, temperature and worry. Loadshedding changes all of these at once. We wanted to gain insight on how loadshedding affected the sleep of university students in particular. This seemed an important group to study as they already tend to sleep poorly, keep irregular hours and carry heavy workloads. Any extra disruption could, therefore, have an impact on both their health and their studies.
Between August and November 2023 more than 1,100 students at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg completed our anonymous online survey. We asked how loadshedding affected their sleep, whether they had access to backup power, and how outages affected their studying and grades. Specifically, we wanted to understand how access to alternative power sources might make a difference to sleep.
Overall, around a quarter of the participants said power cuts affected their sleep. Poor sleep had an impact on their studies and grades.
Loashedding has eased, but South Africa’s grid remains under pressure. Our study raises important considerations for universities, not only in South Africa, but any country that faces unreliable electricity generation and distribution.
What we found
Nearly three in four students considered their sleep affected by loadshedding. Of those, four in five said it made their sleep worse. The most common complaint was broken sleep, with students waking more often during the night.
The reasons students gave were revealing.
Almost half lay awake worrying about appliances such as fridges, phones and internet routers not being powered, and keeping food fresh, or having internet connection. Nearly a third were anxious about security in the dark. A similar number found their bedrooms too hot or too cold as they couldn’t power fans or heaters. About a third said they took longer to fall asleep with disrupted daily and sleep routines, as well as more generator noise pollution affecting sleep onset.
Timing mattered. Students reported that outages between 8pm and half an hour past midnight were the most disruptive. This period covered the evening routine of cooking, washing and studying, and included the average bed time for these students of 11pm, which they reported in our study.
Not everyone slept worse. About one in five affected students said they slept better. Most of them said this was because screens and wifi were switched off and their rooms became darker and quieter.
Backup power lessens those effects, but not equally
Backup power made a difference, but not all backup power was equal. Students with an alternative supply had roughly 60% lower odds of reporting worse sleep, after we accounted for factors such as age, sex and where they lived.
About half of the participants lived in family or private housing, away from the university. The other half lived in university residences or dormitories. At the time, the university had a generator fleet that partially powered on-campus residences.
Among those with backup power, generator and battery inverter users reported worse sleep about half the time. Among solar users it was fewer than one in four. Generators are loud and cycle on and off, which can break sleep. Access to backup power was also uneven. Only 40% of participants had access, with those living in university residences having more than those living at home.
Sleep and studying
Poor sleep and poor studying went together. Two thirds of students said loadshedding had affected their studies, and more than half of these reported a drop in grades. Students who slept worse were more likely to report lower grades and to arrive late for class.
More than four in ten said they simply studied less during outages.
Sleep plays a central role in learning. Sleep helps the brain store what was learned during the day and remove unnecessary memories “to start afresh” the next day.
Our study cannot prove that loadshedding caused grades to fall, but the pattern fits what sleep research already shows.
Why it matters
Our study offers some of the first evidence on how planned power cuts affected sleep in young people.
The findings raise practical considerations for universities, energy planners and households. They suggest that quieter backup options such as solar may protect sleep better than generators.
They also suggest that late evening outage slots carry a particular cost.
For students, keeping a regular sleep routine during outages may help, rather than filling the dark with phone screens. The lights may come back on, but sleep lost while they are off is harder to recover.
– Power cuts and sleep: students link loadshedding to anxiety, disrupted rest and lower marks – https://theconversation.com/power-cuts-and-sleep-students-link-loadshedding-to-anxiety-disrupted-rest-and-lower-marks-293836
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Osarugue Otebele, Assistant Professor, Cinema Studies Institute, University of Toronto
The success of South Korean popular music or K-pop continues to power the Hallyu Wave, a term that describes the global obsession with the country’s pop culture production.
But before K-pop came the spread of K-drama, TV series from the country, starting in the late 1990s. By 2024 the melodrama Queen of Tears ranked as the most watched Korean series on Netflix, becoming the 14th most watched show of all time on the streaming service. It followed on the success of many other hits like Crash Landing on You and Marry My Husband.
K-drama has led to the development of another trend: Africa repeatedly appears as a homogeneous place full of savage danger or childish immaturity, and in need of a Korean saviour.
As a scholar of film and media, with a specific interest in global Black art and film practices, I recently studied how and why Africa became this trope in K-drama. This is particularly true in rags-to-riches romance stories and melodramas.
I traced Africa’s presence in three K-dramas – Shooting Stars (2022), Marry My Husband (2024) and Queen of Tears (2024). In them, Africa appears in three different negative ways:
in need of charity
a place of rebellion and savagery
a place of punishment for a “troubled” child.
My intention wasn’t to say why these portrayals are bad, but rather to understand what they reveal about South Korea. How they function as a scale for measuring and emphasising South Korea’s own development.
No longer the poor post-war country of the late 1950s, South Korea can now position itself among leading world powers. It has grown in the global economic and cultural landscapes.
Yet, as I argue in my study, what allows countries like this to define their developmental status is their ability to distinguish themselves from Africa. I propose that Africa’s presence in K-dramas is as a place maker, or specifically image-maker. Africa’s “savage” presence serves as a way of distinguishing the emerging soft power of South Korea, where what benefits the country’s global image is the ability to provide aid to Africa.
A place to do good
In his book On the Postcolony, Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe describes Africa as Europe’s “signifier”. This means that the way Europe comes to know and define itself is only possible through how it defines itself against Africa.
But my study contributes to showing that this is not just the case in the west. The ever-growing presence of eastern soft powers such as China and South Korea means that longstanding stereotypes of Africa have found new sites of replenishment.
There are some major threads that connected Africa’s presence in the K-dramas I studied. One is its portrayal as a place where non-Africans could go to build character by participating in volunteer work as part of an NGO. In Marry my Husband, for example, the show’s antagonist Oh Yu-ra loses her job in the family business and is sent to “join a volunteer foundation in Africa to build character”.
In Shooting Stars, this idea of Africa as the epicentre of charity is even more apparent. The show’s opening sequence features the main character digging wells in Africa. He’s accompanied by smiling village children and a sound that one viewer described as “Lion King music”.
In both shows, South Korea is personified through the characters sent to Africa. While Yu-ra is sent as punishment, the character in Shooting Stars is an actor whose volunteer trip aids in his public image in South Korea. Africa becomes what builds the image and character of others, but only by being relegated to a cliché.
Yu-ra’s punishment shows how Africa becomes the K-drama’s vessel to hold the unwanted or defamed of other nations. It collects what disrupts the happiness of romance and, by extension, of nation-making, in South Korea. This figuration of the continent reappears in Queen of Tears.
A lawless continent
Queen of Tears does not follow the Asian-saviour-in-Africa trope. Instead, it presents Africa as a place for youthful inhibitions, with no sense of order or rule of law. The ideal place for the kinds of behaviours that might be illegal in the more “civilized” South Korean society that the character exists in.
In Africa’s brief cameo in the show’s third episode, the younger brother of the show’s protagonist, Soo-Cheol, reminisces on his rebellious days:
I’m reminded of when I went to Africa. My twenties were filled with wildness and barbarism.
When chided that he stayed in his hotel for most of the trip, Soo-Cheol comments, “I had enough of the wildness just looking out of the window.”
A character recalls being sent to Africa.Screengrab/tvN/Studio Dragon/Queen of Tears
Here, Africa is understood in proximity to danger and savagery. Is it that there are no crime, criminals, or places and people in need of saving in South Korea? The obvious answer is no, but as my study finds, when viewed through these shows, the answer reads more like, “Compared to Africa, yes.”
Where will Africa go next?
This treatment of Africa began long before the shows in my study. Africa’s character-building qualities appear, for example, in the 2018 film Burning. The film’s female protagonist goes on a “soul-searching” quest to find life’s greater meaning.
In unscripted variety shows, African immigrants living in South Korea, like Sam Okyere or Jonathan Yiombi, often feature as hosts or guests, but not without their share of racist backlash.
Okyere, for example, was subject to racist comments after criticising a video of South Korean students recreating a popular video from his home country, Ghana. The same happened to Yiombi after South Korea was eliminated from the football World Cup because the DRC, his country of birth, defeated Uzbekistan, indirectly causing South Korea to be eliminated.
For better or worse, Africa’s metaphorical and literal presence has come to occupy South Korea’s cultural and aesthetic imagination. Despite Africa also being a continent full of modern urban life, cultural riches and innovation, the clichés remain.
This presence is only possible through the expected and invented image of the savage, helpless and primitive, who is in need, even after independence, of more civilising. And not only from western colonial powers, but also from the growing economies of the east.
A symbol of lack
K-dramas are increasingly popular in Africa, yet when constantly viewed this way, Hallyu’s success in Africa comes with a heavy representational price.
Despite their engagement with K-drama, African audiences can only ever seem to see themselves represented through a colonial gaze that benefits South Korea’s pursuit of global power. Africa then, while continuing to build South Korea’s cultural capital, can only ever exist as a symbol of lack.
– How K-dramas use Africa as a backdrop to boost South Korea’s image – https://theconversation.com/how-k-dramas-use-africa-as-a-backdrop-to-boost-south-koreas-image-292171
O Presidente da República, Daniel Chapo, defende que a consolidação da paz e da reconciliação nacional exige o envolvimento de todos os moçambicanos, com destaque para as famílias e os líderes religiosos. O Chefe do Estado considera que a paz não deve limitar-se às negociações políticas e às celebrações históricas, devendo ser construída diariamente nas comunidades, nas escolas e no seio familiar.
Falando durante a Conferência Nacional Inter-religiosa, Daniel Chapo apelou à promoção do diá., do perdão, da tolerância e do respeito pelas diferenças, independentemente da religião, origem étnica ou filiação partidária dos cidadãos.
O Presidente da República alertou igualmente para os efeitos da desinformação, do discurso de ódio e da manipulação de conteúdos nas redes sociais, incluindo através da inteligência artificial, considerando que estes fenómenos podem alimentar divisões e comprometer a convivência pacífica entre os moçambicanos.
Daniel Chapo sublinhou que a educação para a paz começa nas famílias, defendendo que os pais e encarregados de educação devem acompanhar a formação dos filhos e transmitir-lhes valores éticos e morais. Na sua perspectiva, a exposição das crianças e dos adolescentes a conteúdos digitais exige maior responsabilidade por parte das famílias e da sociedade.
O Chefe do Estado destacou ainda o contributo das diferentes confissões religiosas na promoção da dignidade humana, da solidariedade, do amor ao próximo e da reconciliação nacional, apelando ao reforço da sua participação no diá. nacional inclusivo.
Sobre este processo, Daniel Chapo considerou que constitui uma oportunidade para reflectir sobre questões fundamentais para o futuro do país, entre as quais a reforma do Estado, o sistema de justiça eleitoral, a modernização da administração pública e a gestão de conflitos.
O Presidente da República defendeu, por fim, que a construção de uma paz duradoura exige instituições sólidas, cidadãos conscientes e comunidades reconciliadas, capazes de rejeitar a violência como instrumento de resolução de divergências.
A intervenção teve lugar no âmbito das reflexões sobre os 50 anos da Independência Nacional e a perspectiva de construção de 50 anos de paz em Moçambique.
Distribuído pelo Grupo APO para Portal do Governo de Moçambique.
