Analytical pieces exploring why Africa is the way it currently is today
Ghana has become one of the continent’s most important investment gateways. Home to the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat, the country gives businesses a strategic base to reach a market of 1.4 billion people with a combined GDP of about $3.4 trillion.
Half of Africa's 1.5 billion people are younger than 20, and by 2050, one in four people on Earth will live on the continent. This extraordinary demographic gap is set to redefine global labor markets, consumer spending, and economic growth over the coming decades.
African emigration is doing more damage than is actually reported. With every departure, Africa bleeds in many ways; and the data says it all.
Nairobi, home to less than 0.1% of the world’s population, has become among a leading Global South tech hub. The rise of Silicon Savannah shows how mobile money, startups, and venture capital transformed Kenya into one of Africa’s top innovation centers.
Africans abroad send tens of billions of dollars home every year, but these transfers are far more than money for relatives. They have become one of Africa’s largest sources of foreign income, quietly funding homes, education, healthcare and businesses across the continent.
Ethiopian cuisine stands apart because the country followed a different historical path. More than 2,000 years of culinary continuity, ancient Orthodox Christian traditions, and the widespread cultivation of teff created one of Africa's most distinctive food cultures.
The reason Africa has more than 2,000 languages begins 300,000 years ago, when modern humans first emerged on the continent. That extraordinary history, combined with geography and colonial borders, created the world’s richest landscape of languages.
Nigeria overtook South Africa as Africa's largest economy in 2014, but most Nigerians remain poor. The country's economic growth has failed to keep pace with rapid population growth, job creation, and the rising cost of living, creating this harsh reality.
South Africa ended apartheid in 1994, yet it remains one of the world’s most unequal countries. Deep inequalities in wealth, land, education, and employment continue to reflect the lasting legacy of apartheid.
Why did the Gold Coast become Ghana, Rhodesia become Zimbabwe and Swaziland become Eswatini? African countries have usually changed their names when they entered a new political era, using new names to reflect independence, national identity and a break from colonial rule.
Africa has more than 70 submarine internet cables, yet millions still pay several times more for internet than the International Telecommunication Union considers affordable. Why does getting online remain so expensive despite decades of investment in digital infrastructure?
Most African export earnings, imports, and foreign debt are denominated in US dollars. Because many countries need more dollars than they earn, the resulting shortage keeps demand for the currency high and puts persistent pressure on African currencies.
Africa is rich in oil, gold and critical minerals, yet remains the poorest continent on earth. The answer to this question reveals a hidden system of value, trade, and loss that decides who truly benefits from its wealth, and it is not always where the resources are found.
