An Africanist Perspective

Book Review (1/26): Mahmood Mamdani’s Slow Poison

A journey through Uganda’s stunted political development

Feb 4

28

10

January 2026

The international development community isn’t adapting fast enough to official aid cuts. That’s a big problem.

On the urgent need for a pivot to spending more time trying to supporting specific countries interested in boosting their state capacity; and catalyzing…

Jan 27 • Ken Opalo

84

14

24

Africa in 2026

The 11 trends/factors that will shape African affairs in 2026

Jan 8 • Ken Opalo

128

8

36

2025: Year in Review

Political and economic divergence on the Continent continues apace

Jan 1 • Ken Opalo

97

11

14

December 2025

Book Review (12/25): The Second Emancipation

Explorations in African leadership

Dec 20, 2025 • Ken Opalo

52

2

18

Firms or Families? Another installment in the Mission 300 electrification debate

On the politics and logics of policy tradeoffs

Dec 8, 2025 • Ken Opalo

44

2

8

October 2025

Raila Amolo Odinga

The man whose political career defined Kenya’s multiparty politics

Oct 15, 2025 • Ken Opalo

146

11

41

The geopolitics of international development (after foreign aid)

You can't have nice things without strategic independence and policy autonomy

Oct 2, 2025 • Ken Opalo

167

26

41

September 2025

The most unlikely degrowthers

On why the World Bank and other multilaterals should recalibrate their climate projects in low-income countries

Sep 18, 2025 • Ken Opalo

101

14

22

Electrifying African firms for growth and development

On the urgent need to rethink the core goals of Mission 300

Sep 8, 2025 • Ken Opalo

65

4

11

August 2025

There will be no economic takeoff in Africa without lots of large (private sector) firms

On why African states’ jobs agenda must focus on catalyzing firm growth (and not disorganized investments in micro-entrepreneurship)

Aug 29, 2025 • Ken Opalo

125

33

28

On Africa’s “arbitrary” borders and their alleged impacts

Borders are not the leading cause of state weakness or political and economic underdevelopment in Africa

Aug 14, 2025 • Ken Opalo

163

27

43