Category: The Conversation

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Kwasi Konadu, Professor in Africana & Latin American Studies, Colgate University

The resolution passed by United Nations General Assembly on 25 May 2026 seeking recognition of the transatlantic slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity” potentially creates a broader definition of crimes against humanity in international law and allows for restitution claims against perpetrators. The resolution could elevate the legal and moral standard for what counts as the worst crimes against humanity, and compel more people to legally pursue reparations or compensation cases and thus deter such crimes.

Proposed by Ghana, it was adopted with 123 votes. The United States, Israel and Argentina voted against it. Fifty-two countries abstained, among them the UK and European states.

There has never been a single “gravest crime” designation applied to one human event or condition. Instead, international law defines categories of crimes considered the most serious. Examples are genocide, war crimes, crimes of aggression, and crimes against humanity. Being classified under these categories triggers severe legal consequences. These include global prosecution, lifelong accountability, international sanctions, and reparation claims.

Ghana’s declaration views transatlantic slavery and its system of forced African labour as the worst crime ever committed. It explains how millions of Africans were abducted, treated like property, and abused because of their race.

The declaration points out that the effects of slavery still influence inequality and racism today. It calls on all nations to recognise what happened, teach its history honestly, and remember the victims. It also works towards fixing the lasting damage, including institutional and monetary reparations.

I am a professor of history who has researched and written extensively on the slave trade and its impact. I argue that Ghana’s resolution represents more than a moral or diplomatic statement. It marks a decisive step in an ongoing effort of historical reclamation and political transformation. It asserts that the histories of enslavement, displacement and organised theft are foundational to the modern world.

More importantly, it insists that recognition must lead to action. For contemporary Africa, this moment is about leveraging historical truth to reshape present conditions and future possibilities within a global system still marked by the legacies of transatlantic slaving.

Slavery shaped the modern world

Transatlantic slaving was not an isolated historical episode but a foundational process that made the modern world. Between the 15th and 19th centuries, over 12 million Africans were forcibly removed from their homelands. It was a massive, organised system of theft that left African societies dealing with long-term demographic, political and economic disruptions.

During the 1800s slavery changed form. It became tied to European imperialism. Powerful nations such as Britain and France took over land in Africa and other regions. The countries that had been major slave traders became the leading imperial powers in Africa. For example, French forces in the late 1800s still captured people and forced them into service. Laws in French west Africa didn’t truly end slavery. They simply allowed colonial governments to take over land.

The colonising countries often claimed they were bringing “civilisation”. Similarly, European colonisers in central Africa – especially under Belgian rule in the Congo Free State (1885-1908) – caused massive suffering and death. Around 10 million people died over about 40 years.

The creation of diaspora communities

Over the course of transatlantic slaving, Africans participated, resisted, adapted, and preserved cultural and intellectual systems that would later shape diaspora communities and their bonds with Africa. Those bonds included shared historical experiences, cultural practices, religious systems, political ideas and intellectual traditions that travelled and transformed across the ocean.

Recent calls for reparatory justice emerge from this long-standing network of connections.

Ghana’s resolution comes out of a convergence of continental and diaspora political efforts. African states and Caribbean nations have increasingly coordinated their positions on historical injustice and reparations.

Ghana’s resolution was built on earlier declarations:

The Ghana declaration sets a precedent. It seeks to redefine the moral language of the international order. Elevating it as the gravest crime underscores slavery’s scale and duration. Its systemic nature establishes it as the fundamental architect of global capitalism, racial hierarchies and modern state formation.

Why it matters

The Ghana declaration recognises the centrality of transatlantic slavery and compels a reassessment of how modern inequalities are explained and addressed.

For contemporary Africa, this recognition carries material implications. The aftermath of transatlantic slaving are evident in patterns of underdevelopment, external dependency and unequal integration into global markets. A formal recognition at the highest level of international governance strengthens the basis for claims to reparatory justice.

Such claims may take multiple forms. These may include investment in infrastructure, education and health systems. There could also be reforms to global financial institutions that boost mobilising resources within African borders.

Equally significant is the resolution’s role in consolidating pan-African and diasporic solidarity. By aligning African states with Caribbean nations and broader diaspora communities, it reactivates a political consciousness rooted in shared histories and strategic alignments.

A unified transatlantic African bloc possesses greater leverage within – and outside – international institutions and can more effectively advocate for systemic transformation.

The Ghana resolution also functions as a global educational intervention. Public understanding of transatlantic slaving often remains fragmented or minimised. This is true particularly in regions where some groups or historical individuals benefited from it.

By placing this issue before the United Nations General Assembly, Ghana compels a broader confrontation with the scale and consequences of transatlantic slaving. This is essential for historical accuracy as well as for shaping near future policies and coordinated actions.

Resistance lies ahead

The resolution will face resistance. Some nations such as the United States and Great Britain remain wary of the legal and financial implications of a “gravest crime” recognition. The subject of reparations for them is contentious and untenable. These tensions reveal enduring asymmetries in global power and the difficulty of translating moral or historical claims into enforceable outcomes.

Yet resistance itself underscores the resolution’s significance. It exposes the extent to which historical injustices remain embedded in contemporary political and economic power arrangements.

– The transatlantic slave trade is the gravest crime against humanity – why the UN declaration matters
– https://theconversation.com/the-transatlantic-slave-trade-is-the-gravest-crime-against-humanity-why-the-un-declaration-matters-279218

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Rodwell Makombe, Professor of English Literary and Cultural Studies, North-West University

South-African born writer and world literature scholar Elleke Boehmer’s sixth novel, Ice Shock, is a breathtaking story about two lovers who, soon after they meet, find themselves separated to pursue different career choices in different parts of the world.

Niall Lawrence spends 14 months at a polar institute in Antarctica while Leah Nash pursues a writing career in London. This relationship, which starts when the two meet on a London train, sets in motion a philosophical interrogation of love, career choice and the sustenance of both in a turbulent world.

Through this love story told across two continents, Boehmer paints, in broad strokes, a picture of a planet in crisis, reflected through the melting ice in Antarctica, the Fukushima disaster in Japan and the volcanic eruptions that disrupt global air travel.

In this new world, the old distinctions between “here” and “there” – the centre and the periphery – are disrupted and new ways of inhabiting the planet are imagined. The changing climate intrudes into and disrupts private lives as Leah and Niall struggle to communicate across vast distances and in hostile weather conditions.

Ice Shock asks serious questions about choice, decision-making and the extent to which the unforeseen and the coincidental interrupt and change the courses of our lives. The central question is how the two manage to strike a balance between commitment to love and to career.

How is it that two people who are not looking for love become so strongly connected that their lives take a completely different turn? Is it possible some people are meant for each other? Soulmates?

Leah and Niall are entangled, we are told, like particles in quantum physics, which, once they have interacted, “remain intrinsically linked even when separated by astronomically large distances”. Their birthdays come one after the other – on 31 December and 1 January – and even their initials (NL and LN) interconnect.

As a literary scholar with an interest in travel and migration, I read my colleague’s new book as a radical re-examination of taken-for-granted distinctions such as north and south, here and there, us and them.

This book brings into sharp focus the urgency of the heating planet, showing that its effects are disrupting the most mundane human activities, incuding love relationships.

In Ice Shock, Boehmer combines the teasing style of romance fiction with the contemplative edge of a modernist novel to write about how both the global and the local are making an impact on the way people live, work and love.

Modernist novel

When I first read the book, my impression was “this is a modernist novel”. The modernist novel, which became popular at the turn of the 1900s, radically broke away from the traditional, realistic way of telling stories.

Modernist novels experimented with new narrative styles like stream of consciousness and fragmentation. Modernist writers such as Virginia Woolf and James Joyce wrote novels that were not only interested in telling stories but also engaging with ideas and exploring the minds of their characters.

The backdrop of Boehmer’s story (global disasters and a warming planet) mirrors the backdrop of the modernist novel (massive industrialisation, technological innovations and global catastrophe in the form of the first world war).

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Read more: African sci-fi imagines new ways of living in climate-changed worlds

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Ice Shock deploys a non-linear narrative style and an open-ended plot. Typical of the modernist novel, it refuses to speak about anything with certainty.

It recalls Woolf’s 1925 novel, Mrs Dalloway, not only because of how it explores, in explicit detail, the minds of the characters but also because of the intensity of the relationship between Niall and Leah. Like Niall in Ice Shock, Peter in Mrs Dalloway loves Clarissa to the point of suffocation.

Epic love story

Ice Shock seems to ask the basic question about what it means to love. Is love the intense emotional connection between two people? Is it sacrifice? Faithfulness? Can one love without being faithful?

This is not only a story about the beauty of love but also the pain of it. Niall and Leah may be entangled like particles in quantum physics, but they are still human beings susceptible to human frailties.

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Read more: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s new book Dream Count explores love in all its complicated messiness

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They enter into and keep various flirtatious relationships and fateful romantic entanglements from each other and, somehow, readers are complicit because we do not want to see the lovebirds separate.

Still, they remain powerfully connected. The constant friction between them seems to be the fuel that keeps them going. Boehmer suggests that love, especially between soulmates, thrives in a state of constant but productive tension.

Leah is a free-spirited, self-driven personality while Niall is thoughtful and considerate. They both know and understand each other telepathically, without words. Across vast distances, they communicate with each other through the stars and the moon.

In her review of Ice Shock, South African literary scholar Barbara Boswell describes it as “a novel saturated with extremes”.

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Read more: Johannesburg’s underbelly is explored in Niq Mhlongo’s fresh new novel about a messy break-up

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The lovers know their relationship is moving too fast, but they do not know how to slow it down. Is this a reflection of the preoccupation with speed in the contemporary world or the fast pace with which the planet is warming?

Perhaps the question that Boehmer is asking is how much love is enough to maintain a healthy relationship. Ice Shock is an intrusive novel that captures the inner thoughts (and reflections) of the characters in a way that blurs the distinction between fiction and reality, self and other.

Burning planet

Niall and Leah’s intense, ferocious love affair, in a sense, mirrors the seemingly irreversible catastrophe of global warming – as if to say, we all know the effects of unsustainable human activity on the planet but somehow, we keep going with the same ferocity and intensity. Leah and Niall’s love, like the warming planet, has no reverse gear.

Ice Shock is an attempt to rethink and rewrite how we inhabit the planet.

– Ice Shock is a novel about passionate love in a time of climate crisis
– https://theconversation.com/ice-shock-is-a-novel-about-passionate-love-in-a-time-of-climate-crisis-277016

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Tinashe Mushakavanhu, Assistant Professor, Harvard University

A new feature film, Makemation, is an African coming-of-age story set in a time of artificial intelligence (AI).

Makemation was produced by Nigerian AI-developer-turned-filmmaker Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji. As conversations about AI are dominated by external global powers, his film offers a different vantage point: an AI story rooted in African realities.

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Read more: AI in Africa: 5 issues that must be tackled for digital equality

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After a successful run in Nigerian cinemas in 2025, it’s now touring internationally and I attended a screening at the Harvard Center for African Studies. It was followed by a discussion with its producer and economist Ebehi Iyoha, who researches AI in Africa. The evening foregrounded precisely what the film so deftly dramatises: that the future of AI can also be imagined, contested and built on the African continent.

Makemation is about a young girl, Zara, who discovers AI as a tool not just for personal advancement, but for transforming her community. She must navigate poverty, gender expectations and limited access to science, technology, engineering and maths education. In the process, her journey becomes a powerful reflection on youth innovation, digital inclusion and the possibilities of homegrown technology in Africa.

As a scholar of literature and cultural studies, I see Makemation as a vital intervention that challenges the dominance of western techno-narratives. It places AI within local histories of inequality, aspiration and improvisation.

My work also examines popular media as cultural archives through which African futures are imagined and debated. Makemation expands the archive through which we study who gets to imagine and write African futures.

African tech futures

The title of the film is a blending of words that combines “make” and the suffix “–mation” to evoke ideas like automation, transformation and imagination. It captures the film’s central claim: that young Africans are not passive consumers of AI, but active makers of it.

Makemation asks: who gets to shape the AI revolution? Who benefits from it? And what does innovation look like in places where infrastructure is fragile? Where formal employment is scarce, and ingenuity is often born of necessity?

It does not treat Africa as a technological afterthought. Much of the global AI debate remains abstract and heavily mediated by the concerns of major technology companies or the governments of China and the US: existential risk, large language models, automation at scale.

These conversations, while important, often obscure the material realities of communities where access to electricity, stable internet or quality education cannot be taken for granted. In many African cities, largely informal and dynamic, young people are already improvising with technology in ways that challenge narrow definitions of innovation.

Makemation demonstrates this vividly. Informality is not depicted as absence or lack, but as a site of creativity. The protagonist captures this tension when she says, “My father is a welder and my mother sells akara (street food).” She goes on to explain that she believes education and innovation can create opportunities. Lines like this connect the film’s discussion of AI to everyday forms of labour, grounding its ideas in the realities of family, work, and aspiration.

In the discussion after the screening, Akerele-Ogunsiji spoke about the importance of storytelling in shaping technological futures. If narratives about AI continue to centre only a handful of geographies and demographics, they risk entrenching existing inequalities.

Africa’s youth bulge

Africa, according to the UN, is home to one of the youngest populations in the world. This demographic reality has profound implications for AI adoption, labour markets and education systems.

If supported by inclusive policies and meaningful access to digital tools, this film tells us, this generation could shape AI in ways that reflect local priorities rather than imported assumptions.

At the heart of the film lies a set of intertwined questions about access and privilege. Who has the bandwidth, literally and figuratively, to participate in AI development? Who has the confidence to imagine themselves as technologists?

The young protagonist’s journey is not simply about mastering code or winning a competition. It’s about negotiating gender expectations, economic precarity and the psychological barriers that tell many young African girls that technology is not for them.

In this sense, Makemation is as much about social infrastructure as it is about digital infrastructure. Mentorship, community support and visible role models matter. The film does not romanticise hardship. Instead, it shows how structural constraints shape technological possibility.

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Read more: African languages for AI: the project that’s gathering a huge new dataset

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Makemation works not only because of its idea but also because it is well made. The camera often stays close to the characters, and the soft colours create a reflective mood. The slow editing gives the story time to develop.

Its most important message is to destabilise the idea that meaningful AI conversations happen only in elite spaces. Makemation demonstrates that debates about AI technologies and opportunities that come with them are already unfolding in classrooms, community centres and informal neighbourhoods across Africa.

– Makemation: a Nollywood movie that shows AI in action in Africa
– https://theconversation.com/makemation-a-nollywood-movie-that-shows-ai-in-action-in-africa-277693

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Saheed Babajide Owonikoko, Researcher, Centre for Peace and Security Studies, Modibbo Adama University of Technology

The recent deployment of US soldiers in Nigeria to assist the west African country in its counterterrorism campaign could worsen Nigeria’s insecurity.

It might be perceived as a sign of weakness; deepen religious divisions; widen the rift between the Economic Community of West African State (Ecowas) and the breakaway Alliance of Sahel States (AES); provoke terrorist attacks; and hinder the development of Nigeria’s armed forces.

Since Nigeria’s 1999 transition to civil rule, insecurity has worsened in the country’s northern regions. In 2024, 9,662 people were killed nationwide, 86% of them in the north. In 2025, violent deaths rose to 11,968, with northern Nigeria still the most affected.

The first batch of US soldiers was deployed barely two months after the US bombed militants in Nigeria’s north-west on Christmas Day 2025.

The director of defence information at Nigeria’s defence headquarters said the US troops’ presence would give Nigerian troops access to specialised technical capabilities. This would strengthen Nigeria’s ability to deter terrorist threats and enhance the protection of vulnerable communities across the country.

This is not the first time foreign boots have been brought into Nigeria since its independence in 1960. Foreign soldiers were deployed to fight the Nigerian Civil War, and to re-professionalise the Nigerian Armed Forces.

Between December 2014 and April 2015, Nigeria is said to have hired a private military company called Specialised Tasks, Training, Equipment and Protection (STTEP) International, involving 100 to 250 South African ex-soldiers, for a direct combat role against insurgents in Maiduguri. The government denied this.

Now is the first time US soldiers will be deployed in a combat-related operation as part of Nigeria’s counterterrorism efforts. Among members of the public, there are divided opinions over this.

As a security scholar who researches Nigeria’s security crises, I have serious concerns that the deployment of US soldiers in Nigeria, regardless of their number, may exacerbate insecurity rather than improving it.

Why it may backfire

The armed forces of any country are an emblem of sovereignty. Foreigners in a combat operation against terrorism in another country may be framed domestically as a loss of control over security.

The US has long sought to station its Africa Command (Africom) in Nigeria. Nigeria resisted this, largely due to the sovereignty issue, regional politics in Ecowas and other strategic calculations. Since the US Christmas Day bombing, President Bola Tinubu has come under heavy criticism for not being able to truly act as commander-in-chief while a foreign power handles the security.

What is more, President Donald Trump has widened existing religious divisions across Nigeria by:

• framing Nigeria’s security challenge as persecution of Christians

• declaring Nigeria a country of particular concern

• threatening to deploy the US military to Nigeria unilaterally to defend Christians.

Given this context, US boots on the ground in Nigeria may feed into several conspiracy narratives. One is the perception that the US is seeking access to Nigeria’s critical mineral resources.

It could reinforce the Alliance for Sahelian States-Ecowas crisis, deepening the security conundrum in the Sahel. Nigeria would likely be the most affected.

After the coups in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, and Ecowas efforts to force the coupists to return power to civilians, the Alliance of Sahel States formed and disengaged with western powers. Animosity developed between the two regional groupings.

The Alliance of Sahel States countries, which used to be allies of France and the US, have now shifted to Russia and China. Niger’s junta ordered the withdrawal of over 1,000 foreign military personnel and closure of US facilities, including a drone base in Agadez.

Russia currently has at least 1,500 foreign troops, tagged as the African Corps (previously Wagner), fighting in Mali alone.

The deployment of US troops to Nigeria, given the context of fracture within Ecowas and the shift in foreign alliances, could lead to an escalation of insecurity in the region.

Thirdly, the US is the global arrowhead of westernisation that most Islamist terrorist organisations usually select as the target of attacks. Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria and the support it gets from foreign terrorist organisations like al-Qaeda and ISIS are due largely to the perception that Nigeria is a proxy for the US.

With US soldiers in Nigeria, Nigeria’s value as a target for terrorist organisations may increase. There are already signs that terrorist attacks are escalating in Nigeria since the Christmas Day bombing.

Even with US troops deployed to Nigeria’s north-east, terrorist attacks have become more daring. On 5 March, Islamic State West Africa Province attacked military bases in Borno State. Several high-ranking military officers were killed and arms and ammunition were carted away.

If US forces are attacked, Trump is more likely to deploy more soldiers.

This was the case in Somalia in May 2017. Trump expanded US military operations in Somalia after a US Navy Seal was killed by al-Shabaab.

Even if the presence of the US soldiers in Nigeria is to help Nigerian Armed Forces in operational capacities such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, logistics and air power manoeuvres, heavy reliance on the US could weaken the long-term development of the Nigerian Armed Forces.

What to do

US support is key to Nigeria’s improved capability to address its security challenge, but this should not take the form of US military boots on the ground in Nigeria. It can come in the form of training support and supply of precision equipment. That would help to address critical shortages that affect Nigeria’s ability to deal with insecurity.

– US troops in Nigeria to help fight terrorism could end up making it worse – analyst
– https://theconversation.com/us-troops-in-nigeria-to-help-fight-terrorism-could-end-up-making-it-worse-analyst-278112

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Elaine Nsoesie, Assistant Professor, Department of Global Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston University

A new book called Urban Health in Africa explores how rapid urbanisation across the continent shapes public health and wellbeing. Drawing on diverse research and case studies, the book reframes African cities not just as sites of challenge, but as places of innovation, resilience and opportunity.

We spoke to global health researcher Elaine Nsoesie and urbanisation and wellbeing sociologist Blessing Mberu, co-editors of the book, to explore why the stories of African cities matter, and what it will take to build inclusive, healthy urban futures.

What’s one thing about urban life in Africa that you think more people should appreciate?

African cities work, but not always like cities in other regions. In the book, we quote the following text by AbdouMaliq Simone, who works on issues of spatial composition in urban regions:

In city after city, one can witness an incessant throbbing produced by the intense proximity of hundreds of activities: cooking, reciting, selling, loading and unloading, fighting, praying, relaxing, pounding, and buying, all side by side on stages too cramped, too deteriorated, too clogged with waste, history, and disparate energy, and sweat to sustain all of them. And yet they persist.

That persistence matters. Too often, discussions about African cities focus only on their problems. These include inadequate infrastructure, rapid urbanisation and informal settlements. What gets lost is their remarkable functionality and their diversity. No single city can represent the entire continent. Lagos is not Nairobi; Accra is not Dakar. Each has its own history, governance structures and contemporary challenges. Treating them all the same flattens this complexity.

Yes, these cities face serious challenges. But they’re also home to innovative urban experts, effective policy solutions and technological breakthroughs designed for their specific contexts. The question isn’t whether African cities work. It is whether we’re paying attention to how they work, documenting how they are addressing challenges related to health and learning from their solutions.

Was there a story or example that really stayed with you?

When we set out to write this book, we knew we had to start with history. You can’t understand health in African cities today without understanding how colonialism shaped the built environment and urban citizenship. We wanted readers to see how historical forces combined with rural-urban migration, population growth and policies created the urban landscapes affecting millions of lives today.

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Our second goal was to map the social determinants of health – the conditions of the environments in which people are born, live, play, work and learn – shaping African cities. We focused on informal settlements and slums because they’ve become defining features of urban Africa. We examined how residents navigate daily struggles: inadequate housing, water and sanitation; air pollution; transportation; food insecurity. We didn’t want to present these as isolated problems. We wanted to show how they’re interconnected challenges that affect many communities.

One of our favourite chapters is in this section. The chapter explores how transport affects health in African cities – both the risks and the benefits. For example, the availability of transportation increases access to hospitals and schools, while vehicles also cause traffic injuries and air pollution. The authors also discuss distinctive forms of public transport that African cities share that you won’t find in most other parts of the world.

Motorcycle taxis, for example, have different names. They are called boda bodas in Kampala, okadas in Lagos. Commuter minibuses are referred to as poda-poda in Freetown, trotro in Accra, daladala in Dar es Salaam, matatu in Kenya, car rapides in Dakar, kamuny in Kampala, gbaka in Abidjan, esprit de mort in Kinshasa, candongueiros in Luanda, sotrama in Bamako, songa kidogo in Kigali.

The chapter captures a major theme in the book; while these cities are different, policies that have been effective in one city can be adopted to address the needs of residents in another city.

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Read more: South Africa’s minibus taxi industry runs on social bonds – reform must accept this

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In addition to the social determinants of health, we had another section that addressed Africa’s unique demographic reality: these cities are young. We dedicated sections to how urban environments shape young lives, particularly around sexual and reproductive health. We also highlighted the growing epidemic of chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes and hypertension. Studies have shown an association between the rate of urbanisation in Africa and an increase in chronic diseases because of issues such as adoption of unhealthy western diets, lack of spaces to exercise, and sedentary behaviours.

To showcase how some cities are addressing the challenges related to the social determinants of health, we included case studies on air quality in Kampala, new mental health initiatives in Yaoundé, an approach to reducing school dropouts in Arusha, integrated planning transforming informal settlements in Nairobi, and digital health innovations. The case studies demonstrate that effective solutions incorporate community voices and the local context.

Your book outlines a future for urban health in Africa. What do you see?

Our final chapters make explicit what we believe must happen next. We need public health professionals, urban planners, physicians, nurses, community health workers, policy advocates and water and waste managers working together. We need educational programmes focused specifically on urban health. Most critically, we need strong local, national and regional governance to turn plans into reality.

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But we also need to elevate youth voices, ideas and innovations across the continent. According to United Nations estimates, about 40% of Africans were under 15 in 2020, and nearly 60% were under 25 – the largest proportion of young people of any region worldwide.

Young people are shaping African cities and they will live with the consequences of whatever decisions are made today.

What motivated the publication of this book, and why now?

When we started this project there weren’t any books on urban health in Africa written by Africans working to address the various challenges faced by urban residents. An estimated 46% of Africa’s 1.3 billion people live in urban areas. Africa is also the continent with the fastest urbanisation rate, with 50% to 65% of the population projected to live in urban areas by 2050. Despite having urban challenges similar to those in other regions, some of the issues that cities in Africa face are unique.

We wanted to bring together researchers and practitioners with diverse expertise and deep knowledge of the challenges people face in cities. We wanted to look at these challenges, the policies that have been effective and recommendations about what must be done to improve the health of residents.

– African cities are diverse and thriving, but face many challenges. How to make them healthier
– https://theconversation.com/african-cities-are-diverse-and-thriving-but-face-many-challenges-how-to-make-them-healthier-274647

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Siyabulela Christopher Fobosi, Senior Researcher, UNESCO ‘Oliver Tambo’ Chair of Human Rights, University of Fort Hare, University of Fort Hare

In many rural parts of South Africa, getting to a hospital, school or workplace depends on the condition of a gravel road. When that road collapses during rain or potholes make it impassable, the consequences are immediate: ambulances cannot reach patients, children miss school, workers lose income.

This is the reality for many communities in the Eastern Cape, one of South Africa’s poorest provinces. Here, four out of every five children live in households whose monthly income isn’t enough to meet their basic needs. In 2024, nearly 50% of children in the Eastern Cape lived in households without a single employed adult – the highest rate in the country.

A recent study in one Eastern Cape community documents that the roads are so degraded – from poorly maintained gravel to crumbling asphalt – that they actively cut residents off from healthcare, education and markets.

The problem is often described simply as a failure of service delivery. But this explanation is incomplete. My research as a sociologist with a particular interest in the transport sector suggests that the decay of rural roads reflects something deeper. It is not a breakdown, but a continuation. A regime of inequality continues to shape infrastructure development long after the end of apartheid.

The poor infrastructure is a direct legacy of apartheid’s spatial planning, which from 1948 to 1994 systematically underdeveloped rural “homelands” like the former Transkei (now in the Eastern Cape) to confine and control the Black majority.

Today’s neglected roads still physically isolate communities, restrict their access to markets and services, and demonstrate how the state, through inaction and underfunding, maintains the barriers established by its predecessor.

In my study, I drew on the 2023 inquiry conducted by the South African Human Rights Commission into the state of rural roads in the province. The inquiry was convened in response to a pattern of complaints received by the Commission from rural communities over several years. I served on the panel for this inquiry, which heard oral testimonies from affected community members and farmers, and received detailed written submissions from key stakeholders.

A key finding was that only 9% of the province’s roads are paved, compared to a national average of 25%. The inquiry found that poor road infrastructure limits people’s ability to access essential services enshrined as constitutional rights, such as healthcare, education and social support.

Roads as a system of power

Infrastructure is often seen as neutral – roads, bridges and railways that simply allow people and goods to move. But infrastructure also reflects political choices about who receives investment and who is left behind.

A snapshot of this is evident in the provincial budget for roads in the Eastern Cape. The human rights inquiry report reveals that the Eastern Cape Department of Transport receives an annual allocation of about R2.5 billion (almost US$150 million) for its road network. But the department itself estimates a capital backlog of R30.5 billion just to bring roads up to an acceptable standard.

While the annual budget allows for upgrading only about 42km of road per year (at an average cost per kilometre of R18 million, or over US$1 million), the province has over 36,000km of unpaved roads – a legacy of apartheid-era neglect.

This is not a technical failure. It is a political choice to perpetuate a system where the most vulnerable communities remain isolated.

Three decades after democracy, many of these patterns remain visible. And the effects continue to ripple through everyday life.

The everyday harm of infrastructure decay

For rural residents, road deterioration is not just an inconvenience. It produces what scholars call slow, everyday harm.

Ambulances struggle to reach remote villages, delaying medical care. School transport is disrupted when buses cannot travel on damaged roads. Farmers face difficulties transporting goods to markets. Public transport services often avoid areas where roads are impassable.

These impacts accumulate over time, affecting livelihoods, health and dignity.

In some cases, residents must walk long distances because vehicles cannot reach their communities. During heavy rains, entire villages can become temporarily isolated.

This situation highlights how infrastructure shapes social inequality. When roads deteriorate, the burden falls disproportionately on people who already face economic and geographic marginalisation.

Why the problem persists

Several factors contribute to the continued deterioration of rural roads.

The first is the massive historical backlog.

Second, the funding model is fundamentally inadequate. The inquiry report details that the Eastern Cape relies almost entirely on the Provincial Roads Maintenance Grant. Provincial Treasury itself argued that the national funding formula, based on population, fails to account for the province’s vast geography and historical infrastructure deficit.

Third, governance and capacity issues are rife. Submissions from the Auditor General highlighted repeated financial mismanagement within the Department of Transport, including fruitless and wasteful expenditure on contracts. Municipalities, tasked with maintaining local roads, often lack the resources and the technical capacity to effectively use management systems.

Fourth, the impact of climate change is accelerating decay. The inquiry heard from multiple municipalities about how increasingly severe weather events overwhelm their ability to respond.

Finally, a lack of coordination and accountability. The report notes that despite clear legal mandates, there is often poor planning between the provincial department, the national roads agency and municipalities, leading to misaligned priorities and slow project implementation.

Urban areas and major highways receive priority funding because they are economically strategic. This is not a uniquely South African phenomenon – it is a global pattern. The World Bank estimates that 80% of the world’s poorest people reside in rural areas.

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Read more: Land reform in South Africa is failing. Ignoring the realities of rural life plays a part

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Rural roads tend to receive less consistent maintenance. When maintenance is consistently deferred, costs climb.

Meanwhile, funds that could be used for this upkeep are often tied up elsewhere. A recent Auditor-General’s report found that municipal infrastructure projects nationally face average delays of 17 to 26 months, and all South African municipalities combined spend only 4% of the total value of their assets on maintenance.

These numbers show that the deterioration of rural roads is not an accident, but the predictable outcome of political choices not to invest in marginalised communities.

Communities stepping in

Despite these challenges, rural residents are not passive victims of infrastructure neglect.

Across parts of the Eastern Cape, communities have organised to repair roads themselves. Residents fill potholes, clear drainage channels and use local materials to stabilise damaged sections of road.

These efforts are often informal and rely on collective labour rather than state support. They reflect what scholars sometimes call “insurgent infrastructure” – grassroots initiatives that emerge when the state fails to maintain essential services.

While such actions demonstrate community resilience, they also highlight the scale of the problem. Road infrastructure is expensive and technically complex to maintain. Community efforts cannot substitute for sustained public investment.

Rethinking infrastructure policy

Addressing rural road deterioration requires more than occasional repairs. It demands a broader rethinking of infrastructure governance.

First, rural infrastructure should be treated as a development priority, not a secondary concern. Reliable roads are essential for economic participation, access to services and social inclusion.

Second, government agencies need stronger coordination to ensure that road maintenance responsibilities are clearly defined and effectively implemented.

Finally, policymakers should recognise the knowledge and experience of rural communities themselves. Residents often understand the local terrain and infrastructure challenges better than distant administrators.

Beyond service delivery

If rural roads continue to deteriorate, the consequences will extend far beyond transport. They will reinforce social and economic exclusion for already marginalised communities.

Recognising infrastructure as part of a broader regime of inequality is an important step towards addressing these challenges.

– Bad rural roads in South Africa aren’t just a technical problem – they block people’s rights: report
– https://theconversation.com/bad-rural-roads-in-south-africa-arent-just-a-technical-problem-they-block-peoples-rights-report-278337

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Ruth Castel-Branco, Senior lecturer, University of the Witwatersrand

South Africa’s minister of employment and labour has published a sweeping set of proposed amendments to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, the Employment Equity Act and the National Minimum Wage Act.

The aim is to

modernise key labour laws and introduce practical measures aimed at improving job security, promoting fairness, and extending fundamental rights to vulnerable and previously excluded categories of workers.

For workers on digital labour platforms, who access task-based work opportunities through an app, one amendment is particularly significant. Amendment 50A introduces expanded definitions of employer and employee that could extend labour and social protections to platform workers. These include minimum wages, paid leave, social security, occupational health and safety coverage, and the right to collectively bargain.

Until now, platform companies have largely avoided national regulations by presenting themselves as intermediaries rather than geographically tethered service providers. But the tide is turning as governments and international standard-setting institutions move to regulate the platform economy.

South Africa’s labour law amendment is a part of this broader global effort. Propelled by platform worker organising, several countries, including Kenya, Egypt and Nigeria, have introduced regulations for ride-hailing services. At the international level, member states of the International Labour Organization are expected to adopt new standards for platform work later this year. However, as one of the South African negotiators recently remarked, “the discussion about the platform economy … {is} like a battlefield”.

For the last five years the Future of Work(ers) research group at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies has studied how digital labour platforms are restructuring the world of work and emerging efforts to regulate platform companies across Africa. Kenya has taken a sectoral route targeting e-hailing. South Africa’s approach is broader, but has the potential to exclude those who are in fact self-employed.

Our latest paper, Who counts as a worker?, explores the tensions inherent in regulating a sector defined by diverse and shifting work arrangements.

Why definitions matter

How workers are classified determines what rights they can claim, who they can claim them from and what kinds of benefits they can access.

South African labour law establishes minimum standards for employees. These include:

• minimum wages and deductions

• working hours and overtime pay

• paid leave and parental benefits

• health and social protections

• disciplinary procedures

• collective bargaining.

But platform companies have got around minimum standards by classifying workers as independent contractors rather than employees. The result is that working conditions are precarious. Platform workers work long hours, for low and unpredictable pay, with no health and social protections. And they bear the brunt of operational costs and risks. All while paying commissions to the company.

Platform companies insist that workers are self-employed. Yet the companies exercise high levels of control over the labour process through task-based work allocation and algorithmic management. Through a punitive system of ratings, suspensions and deactivations, platforms unilaterally shape the terms of work. In a recent survey conducted by the International Labour Organization, platforms argued that although workers were self-employed, they should not be allowed to refuse tasks or disconnect from the app.

The battlefield of definitions

It is likely that platform companies will challenge attempts to reclassify workers as employees. After all, calling workers self-employed has been integral to their business model. In Kenya, for instance, platform companies launched multiple legal challenges against new regulations. They have argued their cases on the grounds that:

• the government lacked jurisdiction over their operations

• labour minimum standards infringed on competition law

• the regulations discriminated against migrant workers.

These challenges were shot down by the courts.

How will this amendment affect workers’ lives?

The proposed amendment to South Africa’s law does not regulate platform companies directly. Instead, it says that unless proven otherwise, a person who provides services to another is an employee, regardless of the employment contract. This is in accordance with the National Minimum Wage Act.

The employer has to prove that workers are genuinely self-employed. To qualify as self-employed, a worker must be able to exercise autonomy over the labour process and operate independently from the organisation of the employer.

Labour protections can be extended to platform workers in at least two ways.

The first is through sectoral determinations, made by the labour minister. These are useful in sectors where unionisation and collective bargaining is weak. They can be tailored to the specific dynamics of a sector, so that regulations improve conditions for vulnerable workers.

However, the existing sectoral determinations are not well suited to the reality of platform work. For example, workers may earn rates that appear to exceed the national minimum wage. Yet, their take-home pay may fall well below minimum levels, once investment and operational costs are factored in.

Similarly, conventional conceptions of ordinary hours of work may not reflect how the work is organised on a platform. And existing sectoral determinations don’t address questions like:

• the term of algorithmic management

• the ownership, governance and use of the vast amounts of data generated by workers

• the integration of third parties, such as fintechs, on the platforms

• the regulation of deductions, including commissions and service charges.

A second way to regulate platform work is to establish a bargaining council for the platform economy. This model would give greater voice to workers and employers in shaping the conditions of work in this emerging sector.

Given that governments are still trying to catch up to digitalisation, collective bargaining may offer more innovative and appropriate regulatory responses. Governments can then extend bargaining council agreements to all firms in the sector.

Workers’ voices

Regulations must be designed carefully to ensure that they strengthen rather than undermine platform workers’ power and agency. As our latest working paper notes, the platform economy encompasses diverse forms of work and varying degrees of subordination. As we recently discussed in a webinar, it is critical that platform workers’ organisations be included at the negotiating table. As our working paper argues, these definitional questions are more political than technical.

– South Africa’s gig economy workers set to get more protection under planned labour law reforms
– https://theconversation.com/south-africas-gig-economy-workers-set-to-get-more-protection-under-planned-labour-law-reforms-277858

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Al Chukwuma Okoli, Reader (Associate Professor) Department of Political Science, Federal University of Lafia, Nigeria, Federal University Lafia

The war between Iran and Israel and the US may have far-reaching regional and global implications.

By mid-March, there were signs that it could last longer than many had expected.

The longer it lasts, the greater the effects on the global landscape will be.

Barely three weeks into its outbreak, the violence caused disruptions to the flow of oil, resulting in a spike in oil prices.

But that’s not the only way Nigeria may feel its impact.

I am a security scholar and analyst who has researched and written extensively on aspects of Nigeria’s security challenges. These include insurgency, terrorism and counter terrorism.

This work has informed my view that the Iran-Israel-US war poses three fundamental threats to Nigeria’s national security. There could be:

• heightened attacks by terrorists affiliated with Iranian Islamists

• increased violence between Christians and Muslims

• arms flows into Nigeria from Iran and its ideological allies, such as Hezbollah.

These possibilities stand to add to the country’s present security woes, which have been complicated by external jihadist proxies.

The threat of heightened terror attacks

Iran is believed to be a major sponsor of Islamic radicalism and extremism in Nigeria. Iran has suspected links with the proscribed Islamic Movement of Nigeria, a sect which has been accused of stoking anti-state militantism.

With the escalation of the conflict, agents and militants sympathetic to the Iranian cause may align with terrorists to orchestrate attacks on the US or western targets in Nigeria. Some of the terrorist organisations operating in the country are alleged to have links with extremist groups based in or associated with Iran.

Already, the US embassy and other strategic western interests in Nigeria have been placed on high alert.

There have been protests by the Shia brotherhood in Kaduna, Kano, Nasarawa and the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja) since the killing of the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The protesters have been condemning violence against Iran and the global Muslim populace.

Inter-faith tensions

The war may also rupture the delicate and volatile inter-faith and sectarian balance in Nigeria, pitting Christians against Muslims. The Nigerian population is split in nearly even portions between adherents of Islam and Christianity. There have in the past been incidents of religious violence between the groups, especially in the northern region of the country.

The solidarity protests by Muslims affiliated with the Islamic Movement in Nigeria are a predictor of violence. The sect, which wants an Islamic state in Nigeria, has been involved in a series of religious disturbances in the country over the Middle East crisis. It has often engaged the government security personnel in violent confrontations.

The arms trade

Lastly, the war could lead to an influx of arms into Nigeria.

The Nigerian authorities have, in the past, accused Iran of shipping arms into Nigeria, ostensibly for terrorists, based on some authoritative sources.

Given that Iran counts among the leading illicit arms suppliers to Nigeria, the escalation of violence in the country and the wider Middle East may lead to an influx of arms. Extremist groups in Iran might consider using their franchises in the Sahel to transfer arms to their terrorist affiliates and proxies in Nigeria.

The way forward

Nigeria’s national security apparatus needs to take steps to mitigate the impact of the crisis.

Firstly, its defence and intelligence arsenals need to stay alert. They must be able to detect and respond to threats in a timely and sustainable manner.

Secondly, the country’s borderlands and frontiers need to be protected and policed to avoid the inflow of arms and militants. Tensions in some parts of northern Nigeria, such as Kaduna and Kano, should be carefully addressed. This should not be done with excessive military force, or it could provoke violent backlash.

Importantly, Nigerians should avoid inciting ethno-religious or sectarian violence. Citizens should conduct themselves in a manner that enables peace to prevail.

– Iran war could add to Nigeria’s security troubles. What to watch out for
– https://theconversation.com/iran-war-could-add-to-nigerias-security-troubles-what-to-watch-out-for-278462

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Hugh Corder, Professor Emeritus of Public Law, University of Cape Town

The preamble of the South African constitution of 1996 starts as follows:

We, the people of South Africa,

Recognise the injustices of our past,

Honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land,

Respect those who have worked to build and develop our country, and

Believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity.

It is fitting to start with this reminder, given the extent to which these phrases sum up and embody the life and work of Nicholas (Fink) Haysom, who died in New York City on Wednesday 18 March 2026, a month short of his 74th birthday.

Tributes have poured forth from a wide range of people and quarters, appropriately given the geographical reach and indefatigable energy which characterised Haysom’s life’s work.

This tribute is more limited in scope: given my own friendship and shared experiences with him, it focuses overwhelmingly on the first half of his working life, during the last two decades of apartheid South Africa and the transitional phase to the progressive and robust constitutional democracy that came with liberation.

Notwithstanding the significant impact of his work for the United Nations from the year 2000, the qualities forged in Haysom by his intense involvement in the struggle for democratic practices both in the workplace and wider society under the extreme hostility of the apartheid capitalist order shaped his approach to conflict and strife, wherever it occurred.

It would be remiss, however, not to note the main spheres to which he devoted so much of his life.

For the record, his full names were Nicholas Roland Leybourne Haysom. But he was universally known as Fink, to all comers, and most of us who knew him cannot think of calling him otherwise.

His early life

Haysom was educated at a privileged Anglican college in South Africa’s Natal province during the 1960s. He went on to study at the University of Natal in Durban, where he completed an honours degree in politics.

Durban in the early 1970s was the setting for the nurturing and development of a number of students who became significant activists in the anti-apartheid cause. Many were inspired by the views and mentoring of academics like Rick Turner, an academic activist who was shot and killed at his home by the apartheid regime in 1978.

Among them was a future partner in their law firm, Halton Cheadle. These students were involved in supporting the strike action by dock workers in Durban port in 1972/3, which signalled the revival of independent trade unionism among black workers.

Haysom then moved to the University of Cape Town to complete his LLB (law) degree in 1978. It was in these years that he rose in prominence among the ranks of anti-apartheid activists. The National Union of South African Students (Nusas) had long been a thorn in the side of the regime. But it was rocked to its foundations in 1972 following Steve Biko’s establishment of the South African Students Organisation, founded on black consciousness.

The apartheid regime simultaneously convened the Schlebusch Commission of Inquiry into four “radical” opposition movements, among them Nusas. By 1976, only two campuses remained affiliated to Nusas: the University of Cape Town and the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits).

At the annual congress, held at Wits in December 1976, Haysom was elected president, with the task of galvanising support for Nusas on campuses as well as in broader society, in the aftermath of the 1976 Soweto uprising (when protesting black school students were killed by police).

His leadership and energy, as well as his ability to engage meaningfully with people from very diverse backgrounds and ideologies, revived Nusas. The organisation was also able to forge links more broadly across other anti-apartheid organisations within the country.

Haysom was harassed and detained without trial – then and in the ensuing years.

After graduation, he entered the attorneys’ profession. In 1982 he became a founding partner, with Halton Cheadle and Clive Thompson, of the firm Cheadle Thompson & Haysom – still very much thriving today. During the 1980s it was one of the very few firms of “struggle” attorneys.

The firm worked closely with the emergent independent trade union movement among black workers, as well as other civil movements resisting the consolidation of apartheid in urban and rural areas.

Daily life was extremely tough, and it took its toll on him and those with whom he worked. He simultaneously held an appointment as an associate professor at Wits.

The creation of a democratic state

Haysom was a member of the constitutional committee of the African National Congress and played a critical role in the negotiations which led to the constitutional settlement of 1994.

Again, his human qualities of being able to relate patiently and empathetically to so many diverse groups of people, both among the oppressors and the oppressed, and his great capacity to enjoy good social occasions served him – and the cause of freedom and justice – very well.

Many today unjustifiably downplay the dire risks inherent in the negotiations process, and the possibility of a resort to scorched earth tactics by the apartheid regime. If it was not for a few key participants on all sides in the mould of Fink Haysom, such disastrous consequences would have been realised.

President Nelson Mandela’s assessment of the value of Haysom’s qualities and contributions was realised by his appointment as constitutional and legal counsel in the Office of the Presidency, until 1999. Others have written about the myriad ways in which Mandela relied on Haysom in the heady but often tortuous years of his presidency, during which the constitution was drafted and adopted.

The international stage

Haysom was not retained by President Thabo Mbeki. His professional skills and experience were then devoted to mediating conflict and endeavouring to bring peace to many areas in Asia and Africa, in the service of the office of the secretary general of the United Nations.

The list of his areas of engagement reads like a collection of the sites of major conflicts over the past 25 years: Burundi, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, southern Africa, South Sudan.

He served under three secretary generals of the UN, the formal title given to his last and incomplete engagement being the Special Representative and Head of UN Mission in South Sudan (from 2021 till his death).

In recognition of such exemplary service in the cause of human rights, constitutionalism and conflict resolution, both in South Africa and internationally, Haysom was awarded an honorary doctorate in law by his alma mater, the University of Cape Town, in 2012, matched in 2019 by the New York Law School.

Haysom was a gregarious, ebullient person, who enjoyed good food and drink and good company. Born to a privileged lifestyle, he responded not by accepting his status and its material rewards, but by devoting his life’s work to addressing conflict and improving the lives of the poorest sectors of humanity.

The burdens occasioned by the blocking of his efforts and the obstinate clinging to brutal power and the unjustifiable resort to brutality and greed by so many with whom he had to engage wore him down: anyone who looks at a photograph of him, even in middle age, and compares it with one taken in the past ten years will be shocked by the changes.

His responsibilities also took their toll on family life and other non-work pursuits. Most people would have been tempted to quit, faced by these odds. Yet he remained in office, as a warrior for justice and reconciliation, until his death.

Especially now, humankind needs many more like him in positions of influence.

– Fink Haysom fought tirelessly for justice and reconciliation – in South Africa and on the global stage
– https://theconversation.com/fink-haysom-fought-tirelessly-for-justice-and-reconciliation-in-south-africa-and-on-the-global-stage-278922

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Fabrice Lollia, Docteur en sciences de l’information et de la communication, chercheur associé laboratoire DICEN Ile de France, Université Gustave Eiffel

The appeals board of African football’s ruling body, the Confederation of African Football (Caf), on 17 March overturned the outcome of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) final. Afcon is the continent’s biggest tournament.

On 18 January Senegal had won 1-0 in extra time against Morocco in Rabat. But two months down the road Caf declared a 3-0 score in favour of Morocco, citing violations of Articles 82 and 84 of its regulations. (Three points are the mandatory legal penalty.) Senegal has announced it will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

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Read more: Afcon drama: what went wrong and what went right at the continent’s biggest football cup in Morocco

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As a scholar of information and communication sciences, I have studied how social trust and symbolic mechanisms shape and influence organisational dynamics. In my view Caf’s decision to reassign the title to Morocco is not merely a matter of sports law. It also demonstrates how a regulatory decision can clash with the public narrative of an event and undermine a tournament’s image.

A final is not just a result. It is also a narrative, a memory, and a shared collective moment. When an institution later changes that, it destabilises an already established symbolic order.

A final isn’t just played on the field

Research in Information and Communication Sciences shows that an event never exists just as a raw fact. It exists through the channels that make it visible, tellable and shareable. A continental final involves images, commentary, ceremonial gestures, national emotions, digital reactions, and journalistic narratives.

The winner of a final is not merely determined by a rule or a scoreboard. They are also constructed through a chain of communication that publicly sets the event’s meaning. In this sense, victory is not just athletic; it is also narrative.

For the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, the story had already settled. Senegal won on the field. The images, commentary and immediate memory of the event had begun to embed this outcome in the public consciousness. When Caf stepped in two months later to legally overturn the outcome, it did more than apply rules. It was altering a story that the public had already embraced.

Was it legal?

Let’s be clear. Caf acted within its laws. Its statement is clear that Senegal’s temporary withdrawal from the field (the players walked off for about 15 minutes to protest a penalty decision) justifies the forfeit.

A sports body cannot claim to uphold the integrity of its competition if it fails to enforce its own rules.

But the legitimacy of this kind of decision also depends on how clearly it can be read and understood by the public.

Caf’s reputation under strain

This is where an information communication perspective can help make sense of things. The crisis is about a mismatch between several competing forms of legitimacy, or “truth” – the law, the field outcome, the images of it and how people receive it.

Any sports governing body has to make its rules credible in the eyes of the public. When a decision comes after the symbolic end of the event, it creates confusion in meaning.

The question shifts to whether it can still align its message with what the public understands of the competition.

Research shows this matters deeply. An institution depends on its ability to make its decisions seem coherent and acceptable.

The Senegalese Football Federation’s announcement of an appeal adds fuel to the fire. The final no longer exists as a stable end point. It continues to exist as a controversy, an unresolved matter.

Afcon is not just a football tournament. It is a continental sports brand. Its value does not rest solely on the quality of the play or its audience reach. It is also about story. A major competition produces heroes, images, emotions, memories. It also promises a form of symbolic clarity: in the end, a winner should emerge in a way that is understood and shared.

Its symbolic certainty is a valuable resource in the attention economy.

The controversy does not erase Afcon’s value, but it reshapes it. It shifts the event from a celebration to a dispute. And this shift is never neutral for a sports brand that also thrives on prestige, collective memory and trust.

Business risk

The issue extends beyond sport. It speaks directly to business. Sponsors, broadcasters, investors and tourism stakeholders do not only seek visibility. They also look for a stable, trustworthy and predictable environment.

The Afcon drama sends mixed signals. It demonstrates Caf’s commitment to enforcing the rules. But it also shows that a major event can remain symbolically unstable after it seemed over. This doesn’t always scare business partners away. But it adds reputation risks. It undermines the trust needed to attract investors.

For host nation Morocco, the event brought good economic gains. Hosting such a major tournament is not just about logistics. It also projects the image of a reliable country, able to manage a complex international event.

On the technical side, the tournament strengthened this image, especially ahead of the country co-hosting the 2030 men’s Fifa World Cup.

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Read more: Morocco will co-host the 2030 World Cup – Palestine and Western Sahara will be burning issues

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But the controversy serves as a reminder that a country can host well technically, yet lose some reputation gains due a crisis of meaning.

Bad for communication

In the age of viral images, instant controversies and reputation economies, legitimacy is not built by rules alone. It is also built on the public interpretations that arise.

A disconnect does not just affect a confederation or two national teams. It is an entire ecosystem of trust that is shaken. That includes the competition, its partners, and, indirectly, the host country as a credible organiser of major events.

– Senegal stripped of title: Afcon ruling is lawful, but it puts Caf’s reputation at risk
– https://theconversation.com/senegal-stripped-of-title-afcon-ruling-is-lawful-but-it-puts-cafs-reputation-at-risk-278855