In 2015, under the auspices of the African Union Commission of Inquiry, anthropologist and scholar Professor Mahmood Mamdani said South Sudan was not a “failed state; it was a failed transition.”

According to Mamdani, South Sudan’s mandated breakaway in 2011 to form a new independent nation-state was rushed and has also resulted into the recurring violence in the neighboring state of Sudan. Mamdani suggested that for peace to prevail in the world’s youngest nation-state, the current political class should step aside.

Mamdani was part of the African Union Commission of Inquiry panel on South Sudan which sought to inquire into the causes of the violence. He also says the United Nations must take responsibility for doing little or nothing to mitigate the violence when it first broke out in December of 2013.

On July 29, of this year, the Global Center Tracker published by the Washington Center for Peace and Security, released a report titled: “Instability in South Sudan,” on cfr.org.

A synopsis of the report also defines the conflict as ethnic and political rivalry between President Kiir and Vice President Machar. Despite a 2018 peace deal, “the agreement’s core reforms, including army unification, a permanent constitution, and elections, were never implemented,” the report notes.

According to the report, “Kiir’s arrest of Machar in 2025 collapsed the unity government entirely, reigniting conflict that has since displaced hundreds of thousands and pushed the country toward full-scale famine.”

To give substance to South Sudan as a failed state we review its history prior to the 2011 referendum. That history included Dr. John Garang, the prominent Sudanese rebel leader that championed the vision of a united, democratic, and pluralistic “new Sudan,” where he would serve as vice president. He did not support, as Salva Kiir did, the secession of the South.

A developmental economist by profession, Dr. Garang was one of the major influences on the movement that led to the foundation of South Sudan’s independence from the rule of Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir. From 1983 to 2005, he led the Sudan People’s Liberation Army Movement (SPLA/M).

Dr. Garang achieved a core part of this vision when he successfully negotiated the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Under this historic power-sharing deal, he was officially sworn in as the first vice president of Sudan, July 2005, serving alongside President Omar al-Bashir.

He served as first vice president of Sudan for three weeks, from the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 until his death, in a July 30, 2005, helicopter crash under questionable circumstances.

His widow attributed his death to an assassination. According to a 2007 report published on sudantribune.com, Ms. Garang, at a public event said: “When my husband died, I did not come out openly and say he was killed because I knew of the consequences. At the back of my mind, I know my husband was assassinated.”

She gave no evidence to back her assertion. An investigation concluded that pilot error was to blame for the crash.

Years prior to the split of South Sudan from Sudan peace talks and negotiations to resolve conflict were taking place. The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, who has always been an arbiter of peace and unity, participated in some of these efforts.

During the 1994 talks in Kampala, Uganda, that included Dr. Garang and President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Minister Farrakhan was initially involved. The talks were designed to help settle the longstanding conflicts between North and South Sudan.

As reported previously in Africa Watch, in a January 2020 article published in The Final Call, Minister Abdul Akbar Muhammad, International Representative of Minister Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, said that Museveni and Garang both had very high regard for Minister Farrakhan and his ability to act as a “neutral arbiter.”

They were preparing for Intergovernmental Authority on Development-hosted peace talks in Kenya. But the American Ambassador to Sudan, Donald K. Peterson, “didn’t want Farrakhan involved,” said Minister Akbar Muhammad, in the Africa Watch column, titled, “Farrakhan’s African influence and the year of Return to the Motherland.”

“Minister Akbar Muhammad added it was ‘reported to me … the talks would actually discontinue unless Minister Farrakhan was removed from the discussion.’ IGAD members obviously had bowed to the wishes of the U.S. ambassador. Not wanting to be ‘where he was not wanted,’ Min. Farrakhan left the talks,” my 2020 column noted.

While appearing on May 7, 2006, on “The Open Line Show,” on 98.7 KISS FM, hosted by the late James Mtume, Minister Farrakhan shared his recollections of meeting in Uganda with Garang. Minister Akbar was also in the studio. Minister Farrakhan said he met with Museveni in Uganda, then he spoke on Garang.

“The most important meeting was the meeting with Brother John Garang, who for 20 years was fighting the government in Khartoum. Why was there a fight? Was it (the fight) over slavery? No time during our talk with John Garang, which was four hours in length, was there ever a mention of slavery. But when I mentioned the word justice John Garang’s wife broke down and cried. She said that I was the only person who came and talked about justice. Now what was the injustice?”

Ms. Garang later expressed deep appreciation for Minister Farrakhan’s willingness to openly address the core injustices and racial and ethnic dynamics at play during a turbulent time when international mediation struggled to bridge the divides in Sudan.

Discussing the history of racism in the region, Minister Farrakhan explained:

“The Arabs have mixed their blood with the Africans that lived in the North. They are Arabized and Islamic. And the same racist poison that has poisoned the bloodstream of Islam has made the Arab north feel superior to the Christian and animist African south. The south is Black, Black, Black … So Black until there is Blue in their color. So, when you have, like the enemy has done to us (race-mixing in U.S.). When you’re lighter, you think you’re better than your Black brother or sister.”

Minister Farrakhan in his divine guidance and insight also warned of the motives of those who want to continue fomenting disunity in Sudan and South Sudan. He also spoke on the power of a united Sudan.

Minister Farrakhan stated in an April 8, 2007, message, “The War of Armageddon: How Strong Is The Foundation, Can We Survive?” that America wanted “to set up a secular government in the Sudan and overthrow the Islamist regime.”

“The Sudan is so rich, potentially, that this area—if cultivated—could feed the whole of Africa. Sudan has oil in the South, oil in the West, and an Islamist regime in the North in the capital of Khartoum. America does not want an Islamist regime in Khartoum,” he said.

Before 2011, Sudan was Africa’s largest country. With Garang’s reconciliation and coalition government and Min. Farrakhan’s call for “justice” for Sudan’s disenfranchised Black population peace and unity could have been attained. Landlocked Southern Sudan—home of Sudan’s oil and mineral wealth, and arable land along with utilizing the North’s infrastructure, pipeline, and ports to ship oil to market, as a united and strong alliance would be good for the continent.

Follow Jehron Muhammad @Africawatchfcn

The post Reflecting on Sudan, South Sudan history amid today’s challenges facing both countries appeared first on Final Call News.

The Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, welcomed the UNGA resolution that encourages the use of the “Equal Earth cartographic projection” in maps globally to replace the widely used Mercator projection.

In a statement, the AU said adopting the resolution, sponsored by the West African country of Togo, marks an important step forward. According to reporting by the Chinese news agency Xinhua, the Mercator projection.

Which was designed in the 16th century primarily for navigation, does not accurately reflect the relative surface areas of different regions of the world and significantly understates the true size of the African continent. “A map is never merely a map.

It reflects how the world is imagined,” noted the article, headlined, “Opinion: The map was wrong, but the perception problem is real,” by Xinhua and published on English.news.cn.

The UNGA measure passed 164 to 1, with the United States, not surprisingly, casting the only vote against it. Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia, and Ukraine abstained, the UN reported.

“Every flat map lies because the Earth is a sphere and no projection can flatten it without distorting something: shape, area, distance or direction,” noted an article published on Al Jazeera.

“Gerardus Mercator, a cartographer and geographer who published the world map in 1569, chose to preserve angles and straight bearings, a trade-off that made sense for 16th-century ships but has kept shaping perceptions of the world for nearly 500 years since.

Equal Earth makes the opposite trade-off, preserving true area so continents can be compared honestly, at the cost of slightly bending their outlines,” according to aljazeera.com.

Equal Earth projection shows countries and continents in their true relative size. “Maps shape our understanding of the world,” Togolese Foreign Minister Robert Dussey said, reported UN News.

“A fair map does not change the geography of the world; it changes how we see the world,” he said, adding, “And when our perspective becomes more just, it paves the way for greater understanding, respect and peace among nations.”

In foreign affairs reporter Tim Marshall’s 2015 book, “Prisoners Of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need To Know About Global Politics,” he writes, “The world’s idea of African geography is flawed.

Few people realize just how big (Africa) it is. He adds, “Africa is far, far longer than usually portrayed, which explains what an achievement it was (in past history) to round the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa).”

“Many Africans,” wrote Marshall, “are now partially the prisoners of the political geography the Europeans made … .”  He was referring to the divvying up of Africa by Europeans during the 1884-1885 Berlin Conference. The colonial powers drew artificial borders on paper, ignoring the region’s physical realities.

To show students how Europeans divided Africa, this writer once stood in front of my son Equiano’s sixth-grade class in Philadelphia. Armed only with a magic marker, I drew “artificial borders” on a map of Africa, devoid of its current nation-states. I projected it from the internet onto an erasable board.

According to the documentary “Scramble for Africa,” the 1885 Act of Berlin did the same thing—carve up Africa by simply drawing lines on a map. “Places where they had not even been yet. Between 6,000 and 10,000 political units were carved up. People … were just cut off from (water sources) … it was complete geographical madness,” the film noted.

Marshall explains that after fighting for and achieving independence from their colonial rulers, many African states “encompassed the same divisions they did when first drawn, and those formal divisions are some of the many legacies colonialism bequeathed the continent.” 

He also explained that “modern civil wars (in Africa) are partially because the colonialists told different nations (a product of artificial borders) that they were one nation in one state, and then after the colonialists were chased out, a dominant people emerged within the state who wanted to run it all, thus ensuring violence.”  

As the side effects of some medication, the aftereffects of imposing artificial borders, explained Marshall, “can lead to a weak and divided state, ravaged by internal conflict, and whose mineral wealth condemns it to being exploited by outsiders.”

The UNGA vote matters even though the resolution is nonbinding; it does not ban the Mercator projection but, according to UN News, “simply encourages wider use of the Equal Earth projection.”

As the Iraqi-based news site Kurdistan24.net noted, “the significance of correcting the centuries old map inaccuracy lies less in declaring one map universally correct than in challenging the assumption that a navigational projection should remain the default representation of the world in classrooms, media and digital platforms.

The vote gives broad international support to an argument African governments and campaigners have increasingly advanced: maps do more than show geography.” Follow Jehron Muhammad @africawatchf

The post Maps can shape how we understand the world appeared first on Final Call News.

Hunger has been another fallout from the current crisis. In Sudan, with a population of 51 million, more than 19.5 million are “acutely food insecure,” according to the World Food Program (WFP).

The death toll from direct violence, resulting from the conflict between General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, leader of the Sudan Armed Force (SAF), and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who leads the paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF), has been tracked at nearly 60,000. UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo warned that “the true death toll is likely in the hundreds of thousands,” and said that “13 million people have been displaced amid widespread atrocities, including mass killings, sexual violence, child recruitment, attacks on hospitals and drone strikes on civilian infrastructure.”

Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said, “over two-thirds of Sudanese civilians desperately need life-saving aid but it is constrained by a lack of action and access. Meanwhile, Sudan’s Ambassador outlined his government’s action to protect civilians,” noted Globalissues.org.

During the briefing, several presenters warned that the war being waged between the SAF and the RSF is crossing regional borders, “fueling refugee flows, land cross-border insecurity and the proliferation of weapons.”

The United States encouraged the UNSC to renew the set to expire on September 12, 2026, arms embargo on Darfur. U.S. plans are to expand the arms embargo on the Sudanese region of Darfur to cover all of Sudan, saying the nation’s brutal conflict risks regional expansion. However, France 24 reported, Russia, with veto power, warned against new measures that would impact the “Sudanese army.”

UN News reported that there was a call to action that urged an immediate humanitarian truce, a permanent ceasefire, and “accountability for atrocities, unhindered aid access, and an inclusive Sudanese-led political process, while pressing external actors to stop fueling the conflict and use their influence to bring the parties to the negotiating table.”

According to reporting by Radiotamazuj.org, on Aug. 22-23 in a meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, officials from Sudan who oppose the war rejected an initiative by SAF military leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan for a “Sudanese-Sudanese dialogue,” saying they would neither participate in the process nor recognize its outcomes.

“The groups instead proposed an alternative peace roadmap built around three parallel tracks: humanitarian assistance, a permanent ceasefire and an exclusively civilian political process,” the outlet reported.

Participants in the meeting included representatives of the Sudanese Declaration of Principles, the Popular Congress Party founded by the late politician and former Attorney General Hassan al-Turabi, and headed by Ali al-Haj, the National Umma Party led by Mubarak al-Fadel. Other participants included civil society organizations, women’s and youth networks and independent public figures.

However, according to Middle-East-online.com, in a joint position paper by the non-aligned Sudanese anti-war forces, titled “The Peace Process We Want,” the group explicitly rejected Burhan’s call for dialogue from inside Sudan, reported Middle-East-online.com (MEO).

The coalition explicitly rejected dialogue held from territory controlled by either waring faction

According to MEO, “launching dialogue from areas controlled by one of the warring parties risked producing an unbalanced political process and could entrench Sudan’s existing geographical and political divisions, effectively turning military control on the ground into a permanent political reality.”

In a press statement published on The Middle East Media Research Institute’s website, the coalition warned that the “warring parties would not constitute a genuine peace process and could legitimize military rule.”

The outlet noted that the coalition also called for greater coordination among international mediation efforts and thanked Ethiopia for facilitating the meeting and supporting efforts to end Sudan’s war.

The press statement identified the Quad Roadmap issued on September 12, 2025 “as the best available framework for the peace process.”

That roadmap “affirmed the participants’ full readiness to engage constructively with the Quintet Mechanism and to share the observations and proposals advanced by the anti-war forces, in accordance with the principle of full Sudanese ownership of decision-making. It also called for the efforts of the Quad, the Quintet, and the Troika to be unified within a single coordinated framework capable of strengthening collective pressure to end the war.”

“The Quad” includes, the U.S., Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. “The Quintet” consists of five international and regional organizations, including the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the League of Arab States. “The Troika,” consists of Norway, the United Kingdom and the U.S.

The ongoing war in Sudan has various coalitions and groups scrambling as the humanitarian crisis impacting the Sudanese people continues claiming lives.

The coalition that authored “The Peace Process We Want” could be a breath of fresh air when it comes to resolving the war and saving lives. The Horn Review noted that the coalition members span a real ideological distance in their quest to address the conflict but that it could mean progress toward peace.

“What unites them is precisely what united the street six years ago. And it is a genuine precedent that Sudan’s civilian actors are right to reach for,” the outlet reported.

Follow Jehron Muhammad, @Africawatchfcn on X

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Nigeria recently signed up for China’s “zero-tariff policy,” which, according to some analysts, could be strategic to Africa’s future and to the continent’s economic transformation. “The Zero-Tariff policy commenced in earnest on May 1, 2026, and it is instructive that the results so far have been impressive, with positive outcomes promising to change the fortunes of Africa for the better by facilitating open access for products into the Chinese market,” noted an article by Innocent Odoh on Leadership.ng, titled, “China’s Zero-Tariff Policy As New Dimension For Africa’s Prosperity.”

A 2025 panel discussion that included former British Prime Minister Liz Truss and Quincey Institute for Responsible Statecraft affiliate international relations scholar John Mearsheimer noted that the containment of China is being “notably analyzed” because of the Asian country’s unequaled “growth trajectory,” despite restraint efforts by the West.

The discussion was held on Global Impulse Media, an online digital content brand that focuses on global current events, technology developments and geopolitical shifts. The discussion exposed the fundamental hypocrisy of Western globalism.

During the panel discussion Chinese venture capitalist, political scientist and commentator Eric X. Li, gave substance to China as a global powerhouse. He challenged Mearsheimer’s claim, that, “We made China into a Godzilla, and it’s come back to haunt us.”

Li countered by explaining in the “beginning” that decades ago America and Western countries “were at the core of globalization” but that developing countries, including China were at the “periphery.” “… the division of labor was clear. The U.S. and western Europe were in charge of R&D (research and development) and finance and military. We were resigned to do cheap labor and sell natural resources, if we had them. China didn’t have them, but others had them,” Li said.

“China grew and moved up the value chain, meaning China left their designation of handling manufacturing and assembly,” he continued. According to Li, “Unfortunately the U.S. and certain Western countries thought, or perceived this as a threat. So, they didn’t want to do that anymore. So, globalization is in trouble.”

Former UK Prime Minister Truss claimed China’s development was enabled by allegedly being able to “cheat” the system. “We’ve moved into a multi polar world. What I think happened is the West actually enabled the rise of China by allowing China into the World Trade Organization (WTO), by allowing China to flout the rules of trade and cheat the system. And what I think we’re now seeing under President Trump is a push back,” she argued.

China joined the WTO in 2001. Li once again pushed back on Truss’ claim. “I’m not sure where that came from? When China signed up to the WTO it wasn’t told that it was signing up to the liberal international order. There was no such thing. It was made up in retrospect. It didn’t happen. This is the hubris of Western capitalism. Washington believed if you gave a country enough McDonald’s, it would automatically turn into a Western liberal democracy, let’s be honest, America and its Western cronies never cared about the liberal international order. When it came to trade it happily traded with Saudi Arabia, and for decades armed Arab Gulf monarchs without demanding they ever hold democratic elections. The democracy requirement was only retroactively applied to China when China became a peer competitor,” he countered.

As China grows stronger and its global position expands, the U.S. and its Western allies are threatened its growing influence in the Global South, including Africa.

The Chinese currency, the yuan, could soon be Africa’s most important currency. As China’s largest trading partner, it opens the possibility of making the yuan more important than the dollar on the continent.

Africa’s banks are signing up for China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS), smoothing transactions and potentially avoiding sanctions.

“Africa is emerging as fertile ground for Beijing’s drive to make the yuan a major international currency and reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar, as an increasing number of financial institutions deepen their integration with China’s payment network,” South China Morning Post reported.

The outlet also reported that after talks in Beijing between Central Bank of Libya Governor Naji Issa and People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng in July, the North African country’s banks were set to join CIPS.

“The move will facilitate direct yuan interbank payments for trade. According to the state-run Libyan News Agency, joining the network will streamline commercial transactions, accelerate cross-border transfers and boost trade flows. Libya also plans to tap into China’s capital market by issuing panda bonds—yuan-denominated debt sold by foreign entities in mainland China—which could help fund the country’s reconstruction following years of conflict,” explained the South China Morning Post.

China’s campaign to expand its global usage of its currency has gained another foothold in Africa after oil-rich Angola allowed commercial banks to use the Chinese currency to meet part of their mandatory foreign-currency reserve requirements.

China has stepped up initiatives to encourage the use of its currency in trade settlements, cross-border payments and reserve management, particularly across emerging markets where Chinese trade and investment have grown rapidly. Recently Beijing’s central bank authorized new Renminbi clearing arrangements on the continent through major banking partners, making it easier for businesses across the continent to settle transactions directly in yuan.

“The growing adoption of the Chinese currency is being driven not only by Beijing’s ambitions but also by efforts among some emerging economies to diversify payment and reserve currencies, reduce foreign exchange costs and deepen trade with China, noted africa.businessinsider.com.

Additionally, China’s zero-tariff concessional market access for African goods exported into its 1.4 billion population added a new dimension to China-Africa relations, which are predicated on the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

“According to the Chinese Envoy, in the first half of 2026, China—Africa trade reached a record high of $207 billion. From May to June alone, Chinese imports from Africa reached $29 billion, a 24% year-on-year increase. Estimates show that the zero-tariff policy has increased overall exports to China by roughly 6%, noted Nigeria’s Abuja based daily,” reported Leadership.ng.

Despite China’s economic growth didn’t begin with its admission to the WTO despite the claim by former Prime Minister Truss. It began in 1978 with Chinese paramount leader of the People’s Republic of China, Deng Xiaoping’s internal economic reforms. By the time China joined the WTO in 2001, their growth trajectory was already locked in. China’s success came from state directed industrial policy, massive infrastructure investment and human capital development.

This growth and expansion, particularly with inroads in Africa, has Western nations, particularly the U.S., concerned and trying to keep up.

The post America and its allies threatened by growing China-Africa economic ties appeared first on Final Call News.

The choice of capital city Nairobi was not incidental.

This marked the first time a France-Africa summit was co-hosted and held in an Anglophone (English-speaking) African nation rather than a traditionally Francophone (French-speaking) country on the continent. The summit came amid France’s diminishing ties with its former African colonies but as Kenya is seeking increased trade.

In advance of the summit, Macron told Paris-based magazine “The Africa Report” that colonialism could no longer be blamed for all of Africa’s challenges. “We must not exonerate from all responsibility the seven decades that followed independence,” he said. He called on African leaders to improve governance.

This condescending remark was not the only controversial thing the French president stated.

According to Ghana’s online news portal, Modernghana.com, Macron made another declaration that sparked debate. “Standing alongside Kenyan President William Ruto at a press conference on the eve of the Africa Forward Summit, French President Emmanuel Macron looked into the lenses of the world’s media and made a declaration that would ignite a continent,” reported Modernghana.com.

According to the outlet, Macron claimed, “We are the true Pan-Africanists.” The French president, with his country’s history of colonialism and the post-colonial blemish of Africa’s last colonial currency, the CFA Franc, added, “We believe that Africa is a continent, and that this continent has an enormous amount to build.”

Within hours, his comments went viral. “For millions of Africans who know their history who know what France spent three centuries doing on the African continent the claim was not simply debatable. It was breathtaking in its audacity.

And what followed both in the streets of Nairobi and on social media platforms across Africa and its diaspora was one of the most pointed, passionate, and historically grounded conversations about France’s relationship with Africa that the continent has had in a generation,” noted Modernghana.com.

Togolese human rights activist Farida Bemba Nabourema responded in a scathing open letter to Macron titled, “You Are Not A Panafricanist and Can Never Be!”

In it, she took Macron to task recounting France’s colonialist past. She recounted France’s horrific history that began on the continent of Africa. “Pan-Africanism was not born in Paris. It was not theorized in the corridors of sciences or the salons of the Fifth Republic.

It was born in the holds of slave ships, in the plantation fields of Saint-Domingue in the exile of men and women whom your republic and its predecessors hunted, poisoned, shot, disappeared and buried in unmarked graves precisely because they had the temerity to believe that African and African-descended people deserved to govern themselves,” she wrote.

“Pan-Africanism is, at its most fundamental, the political philosophy that said no to everything France spent three centuries saying yes to: slavery, colonialism and neocolonialism.

It is the intellectual and organizational tradition built in direct and irreconcilable opposition to the project your nation prosecuted across this continent with a consistency and a brutality that your current rhetorical repositioning cannot retroactively launder.”

Nabourema’s response was not the first time Macron has been confronted with response by Africans on France’s colonial history and its impact.

In October of 2021 Macron hosted a summit in Montpellier, France. No heads of state were invited, but reportedly thousands of young Africans, including artists, athletes, and businesspeople attended. According to Theelephant.com, an online outlet that provides analysis on the continent, the purpose of the 2021 gathering was, “To demonstrate a ‘new’ France-Africa relationship, built on listening to youth.”

At the summit Kenyan radio personality and social activist Adelle Onyango addressed the audience in which Macron was a part of. “We as Africans feel the pain of colonization every single day. The lack of a clear and strong acknowledgement of the continent’s pain on this destructive past results in skepticism.

What we end up with is skepticism of what exactly does France stand for. … In fact, the air of denial that France chooses to sit in is uncomfortable, not only for Africa but also for France, and it does no good for either one of us. How can you trust the source of your pain when the source doesn’t acknowledge it?” she said, reported Theelephant.com.

Macron’s real quest is in reinventing the colonial narrative. His goal is to stay connected by any means necessary, to a continent that is awakening to its history of being subjected to the Global North, including French imperialism.

Additionally, there are media reports that point out that France’s new African initiative, may have more to do with its current economic situation. France may not currently be collapsing economically, but as the world’s seventh largest economy, it faces a severe fiscal and political strain, driven by mounting public debt, high government spending, and a persistent budget deficit.

John Ryan is an economist and a Network Research Fellow at CESifo, Munich. He noted, in an article published on the website of the London School of Economics website (LSE), that France’s debt metrics are abysmal and he writes in part that France’s “External debt stands at approximately $7.7 trillion, equivalent to around 248 percent of GDP, while total debt across the economy is close to 319 percent of GDP.”

In Dr. Ndongo Sylla’s book, “Africa’s Last Colonial Currency: The CFA Franc Story,” co-authored by journalist Fanny Pigeaud, they argue that the CFA Franc continues to act as a neocolonial tool that extracts wealth from Africa’s Francophone countries.

They outline how this monetary arrangement hinders economic sovereignty, perpetuates underdevelopment, and subordinates African nation-states to European financial policies and French geopolitical interests.

The question Africa has to ask is: Does the continent with its significant mineral wealth want to continue to tie itself to a former colonial master during a time of its severe fiscal and political crises? Follow Jehron Muhammad @africawatchfcn on X

The post The ongoing attempts by French president to keep colonial hooks in Africa appeared first on Final Call News.

The four countries together represent over two-thirds of the world’s global cocoa production. At the recent Cocoa Value Addition Summit 2026, in Abuja, Nigeria, they declared that establishing this new agreement has the potential to coordinate policies, promote local cocoa processing, bring production standards into harmony, and strengthen the continent of  Africa’s bargaining power in the global cocoa industry.

Cocoa is a seed from the Theobroma Cacao Tree and is the primary or essential raw material in the making of chocolate. According to confectioneryproduction.com, the world’s demand for chocolate has developed into a $150 billion industry

“with African countries supplying over 70% of the cocoa for it—yet its farming communities reportedly gain no more than between 5-10% of that overall value, due to the longstanding supply chain system that has seen the majority of profits returned to largely European-based processing facilities and corporations.”

“Value added” is simply the addition given to raw material by processing it before selling it abroad. In Walter Rodney’s book, “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa,” he explains how Europeans and Americans have a history of undervaluing Africa’s substantial mineral wealth by exporting raw material and processing it abroad.

This is the ultimate form of exploitation, and the primary hallmark of the capitalist imperialist economic system, Dr. Rodney points out. Throughout the book, one of Dr. Rodney’s main arguments is that through this exploitation, Africa developed Europe at the same rate that Europe underdeveloped Africa.

Perhaps this agreement between Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast will be a step toward the West African nation breaking off this European and American exploitation.

According to Nigeria’s Punch Newspaper, in speaking in advance of the July 14, Cocoa Value Addition Summit, Senator John Owan Enoh, who is the Minister of State for Industry in Nigeria, said African cocoa-producing countries were determined to change a century-old trade model that has left producing nations with little economic value despite supplying most of the world’s cocoa.

“For a hundred years, Africa has sent its cocoa to the world in sacks and received it back in wrappers, paying at both ends of the transaction,” said Senator Enoh, the outlet reported.

“The distance between a bean and a brand is measured in jobs and in dignity, and on July 14, in Abuja, four nations begin closing that distance together. We do not gather to lament the market. We gather to redesign our place in it,” the senator who is also a cocoa farmer said.

During the summit sponsored by the Nigerian government, the country’s president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, unveiled a “far-reaching” plan designed to enhance the country and wider regions of cocoa production to retain a greater share of its overall commercial value, noted confectioneryproduction.com.

The president was represented at the summit by his Minister of Agriculture, Abubakar Kyari. The theme of the summit was “From Bean to Brand: The Bean in My Hand, The Brand in Our Future.” 

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security noted that Kyari pointed out that “Nigeria is shifting from exporting raw cocoa to processing it domestically, to create jobs, attract investments and earn more foreign exchange from (the) cocoa sub-sector.”

He added that “Seven of every ten cocoa pods on this earth ripen under the African sun. They are grown by African hands-on African soil with African knowledge passed down through generations, and yet of a global chocolate economy now valued at well over $130 billion and by some recent estimates approaching $165 billion,’’ reported Agriculture.gov.ng.

“We will grind our beans at home, we will press our butter at home, we will make our chocolate at home, brand it at home and sell it to the world on our own terms.’’ 

During the summit, participants received updates on the construction of what is expected to become Nigeria’s largest cocoa processing facility, a 70,000-metric-ton processing plant being developed by Sunbeth Global Concepts in Sagamu, Ogun State, which is scheduled for commissioning in 2027.

In addition, the Ghanaian news site Pulse reported that the country is set to join Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Cameroon in a landmark agreement aimed at transforming Africa’s cocoa industry by increasing local processing, strengthening the continent’s bargaining power and reducing its dependence on exporting raw cocoa beans.

According to Brandspur Brand News, “Nigeria will also sign a separate Cocoa Value Addition Accord with cocoa-producing state governments, farmers’ associations, processors, researchers and development finance institutions.

The agreement is expected to drive investment across the cocoa value chain, expand domestic processing capacity and improve earnings for cocoa farmers through coordinated implementation.”

Later this year on October 7-8, Nigeria will host the Africa Cocoa and Coffee Conference. It will convene an unprecedented assembly of cocoa and coffee stakeholders across the full value chains—farmers, cooperatives, processors, roasters, exporters, researchers, policymakers, development finance institutions, and multilateral organizations—to drive concrete action on the most urgent challenges and opportunities facing Africa’s cocoa and coffee sectors.

The conference is presented by the Cocoa and Coffee Farmers Alliance Association of Africa (COCEFAAA) in partnership with the Federal Ministry of  Agriculture and the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria.

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The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) expressed its concern in a article published on the Independent Online (IOL.co.za), which is one of South Africa’s leading news and information websites. In the article, “Online attacks target Muslims amid anti-immigrant sentiment in South Africa,” the group expressed its growing concern in what it describes as “a rise in Islamophobia on social media following efforts by members of the Muslim community to assist migrants who were allegedly displaced by xenophobic attacks, as well as the appointment of Yusuf Cassim as Deputy Minister of Higher Education.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s appointment of Yusuf Cassim as Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training has drawn much praise. It is the “criticism(s)” he received that “triggered” the increasing wave of Islamophobia.

Iqbal Jassat is executive member of the South Africa-based Media Review Network. He noted that “the increasing spread of anti-Muslim rhetoric (is) driven by online disinformation, political opportunism, and imported ideologies.” While the country claims a long history of religious tolerance, media narratives increasingly portray Muslims as “perpetual outsiders” regardless of their contributions to society and history of citizenship.

Another article of Independent Online titled, “Understanding Islamophobia in SA: Historical roots and current implications,” notes that “public figures and Muslim politicians frequently face targeted online campaigns aimed at questioning their patriotism and framing them as dangerous or foreign.” Even though Cassim has been called a “devout Muslim,” his swearing in as Deputy Minister triggered a wave of Islamophobia on social media.

Another example is that of Dr. Imtiaz Sooliman, head of the popular NGO (nongovernmental organization) “Give of the Givers.” Independent Online reported that for decades Sooliman was hailed across all sections of South African society “as a true patriot and champion of the underprivileged until he spoke out against the Israeli genocide, after which we saw coordinated attacks on his integrity, patriotism, motives, religion and the attempts to suggest that his funding came from ‘suspicious and tainted’ overseas funding.”

In the 2022 study: “Think-tanks and the news media’s contribution in the construction of Islamophobia in South Africa,” that was published on Manchesterhive.com, author Dr. Mohamed Natheem Hendricks, senior lecturer at University of Western Cape, noted that some of the country’s think-tanks and popular media outlets are contributing factors in Islamophobia.

According to Dr. Hendricks, “These actors are often complicit in representing African Muslims and Islam as sources of terror and terrorism.”

In the study he explains that think-tanks and the media manufacture terrorism knowledge and expertise in support of the so-called global “War on Terror” in ways that are consistent with western discourses on Islamophobia. “They represent Muslims’ identity in static and negative terms to exclude them from the constructed ‘we,’ using securitization theory as a theoretical lens he confirms that South African think-tanks and media have manufactured Muslims as a security threat and have created a climate of widespread fear of Muslims that has the potential to justify anti-Muslim racism or anti-Islamic prejudice—Islamophobia,” the study noted.

Dr. Faisal Suliman, chairperson of the South African Muslim Network, wrote on Independent Online that these patterns of social media messaging are not “organic but (are) coordinated, opportunistically riding on the wave of anti-immigrant, Afrophobic and xenophobic sentiments sweeping our country.”

He added, “We have noticed a clear pattern that the framing of Muslims as the other increased after Israel’s invasion and its genocide against the people of Gaza and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) case against Israel.”

Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Mmamoloko Kubayi has warned that this is possibly a part of a foreign destabilization campaign. In a July 6 interview Minister Kubakyi gave to Thecommonsense.co.za, titled, “It’s an (Israeli) Plot, Claims Minister on Xenophobic Wave,” she linked recent protests in her country to South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). “That court case is huge on their (Israel’s) shoulders. And they will fight back in a manner that seeks to show South Africa is not a country with moral authority to advocate for human rights.”

While Minister Kubayi “stopped short of directly accusing Israel of being complicit in backing demonstrations and did not provide smoking gun evidence to support the allegation, the minister said it would be ‘naïve’ to assume that powerful global interests would not seek to weaken South Africa’s credibility on human rights issues, thus weakening its long running genocide claim against Israel,” reported The Voice of the Cape News.

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The African continent’s influence on the FIFA (International Federation of Association Football) World Cup in 2026 has grown from peripheral participation to a core structural and cultural force. The continent’s impact is most visible in the expanded 48-team format, where Africa secured an historic 10-team presence. Those teams included Algeria, Cape Verde, DR Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia.

Nine of the continent’s 10 competing teams were among the last 32 teams, a historic achievement for African football (referred to as soccer in the U.S.) at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. This is where a record nine out of 10 competing African nations successfully advanced past the group stage into the Round of 32 knockout phase. When told about this fact after Algeria’s crucial draw against Austria, Tiyad Mahrez, who plays for the North African country, told The Atlantic, “That’s amazing. It shows the quality of African football, which is not always described as really good football, but it is. It’s difficult to play in Africa, but when you see nine out of 10 teams at the biggest tournament (going through), it shows a lot. I’m so pleased.”

At the time of this writing, two African nations remained, as Egypt and Morocco had successfully advanced to the quarterfinals of the tournament.

From the outset of this year’s tournament, matches played by African teams upended expectations. According to Time.com, “Cape Verde, a nation of half a million playing in its first World Cup, held the reigning European champions, Spain, to a scoreless draw in Atlanta. Then, they took a point off Uruguay (another former World Cup Champion). Egypt led Belgium before holding on for a 1-1 draw, then beat New Zealand 3-1. Morocco, a semifinalist four years ago, drew with Brazil while outplaying them for long stretches, then dominated Scotland.”

The Time article continued, “And Folarin Balogun, born in New York to Nigerian parents, scored twice in the United States’ opening win, a reminder that African talent shapes this game far beyond the continent’s own teams. None of this is a fluke. It is the latest evidence of something the rest of the world has been slow to price in.”

Ivory Coast, recognized by FIFA as Côte d’Ivoire, has appeared on four occasions: 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2026. Nicknamed the Elephants and winning at the Africa Cup of Nations tournament three times, they got the job done, defeating Curaçao 2-0, guaranteeing their place in the knockout stages of the World Cup for the first time before losing in a competitive match against Norway.

The year 1934 marked Africa’s participation in the inaugural World Cup. Still under colonial rule, the continent sent Egypt across the Mediterranean to Italy to represent it. As Egypt was eliminated, according to ESPN, “amidst a cloud of injustice,” the continent would be denied participation for the next 40 years.

During the 1960s, as a movement for independence swept across Africa, FIFA ruled that “Africa, Asia, and Oceania would have to share a single qualifying spot for the 1966 World Cup,” reported the BBC. In response, 15 African nations staged a historic, continent-wide boycott of the tournament. “The continent, summoned by CAF (Confederation of African Football) President Abdel Aziz Moustafa, withdrew in protest, in a decision that reflected its intensifying emotional current,” noted ESPN.

Moustafa’s presidency led to greater FIFA recognition for Africa and to the successful advocacy for more World Cup slots for African nations, reported Pulse Sports.

Eventually, African talent in football (soccer) came to supplement European teams. There were years of expansion and European academies filled with African talent, and players starred for the world’s biggest clubs (teams).

“It was also in the 1990s that this trend of postcolonial immigration would leave its indelible mark on world football, as France lifted its first World Cup on home soil with a squad composed of several African-descended players like Zinedine Zidane, Patrick Vieira and Marcel Desailly. The team would be fondly called Black-Blanc-Beur (Black-White-Arab) in praise of its ethnic diversity, reported olayafrica.com.

In this 2026 World Cup, African-descended European players are among the most extraordinary talents on the pitch, but addressing the imbalance in African participation has potentially awakened a sleeping giant.

Examples of Africa’s ability to compete were evident in Cape Verde, which produced one of the biggest shocks in the competition’s history by drawing with the European champions, Spain, in their opening game. Ghana produced a disciplined performance to earn a point against England. South Africa recovered from a painful defeat to Mexico to finish second in their group and advance, The Athletic reported. The DR Congo, who, at their first World Cup, had a draw with Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal and also progressed as one of the best third-placed teams.

The growing participation of African nations in the World Cup has excited people on the continent.

Veron Mosengo Omba, the newly-elected president of the Congolese Football Federation and former general secretary of the Confederation of African Football, said the scenes had moved him: “Even in the occupied areas of eastern Congo, you see people coming out into the streets to dance. It’s incredible … What these young players have given us is an unexpected gift,” reported The Guardian.

Democratic Republic of Congo President Félix Tshisekedi struck a similar note, which speaks volumes for all of Africa. “Every victory, every flag raised, strengthens our pride, our national identity and the invisible foundations of our unity,” he said.

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Dr. Sachs, who frequently appears on international media outlets, heavily criticizing mainstream Western news organizations and their biased, one-sided reporting, is an economist and public policy analyst, a professor at Columbia University, and the current director of the Center for Sustainable Development.

At the February summit, he warned that Africa must integrate its markets and become a singular geopolitical bloc. He stressed that Europeans and American colonial-era divisions leave the continent’s 55 countries fragmented and vulnerable, while a true union or integration of African nation-states unlocks the scale needed to compete and excel.

Integrating the trajectory of Africa’s population growth with “the most amazing acceleration of technological know-how in history,” Dr. Sachs projects that Africa’s population is so young that there is a tremendous population growth built into Africa till the end of the century. He calculates that “Africa’s population will be two and a half billion people at mid-century.”

Comparing Africa’s population growth to that of China and India, he said that by the end of the 21st century, China’s population will be under one billion, and India’s, he estimates, will stabilize at 1.7 billion. Dr. Sachs explained that according to him, “on the current extrapolation with a gradually declining fertility rate, Africa reaches about 3.7 billion people by the end of the 21st century, and that is about 35% (or one-third) of the world population.”

Everything has accelerated, he explained. “If you launch ChatGPT one month, within the next month there are 100 million users. Within six months, there are 500 million users. We’ve never had an uptake of technology at this speed in history. So, if this technological know-how is properly utilized, the ability of Africa to achieve what China achieved, double-digit growth for four decades, is absolutely realistic. This is the main point. Africa can achieve a dramatic advance,” he argued.

The entire African continent must be in learning mode, he pointed out. “This is a continent with a 19-year median age. Half the children are at school age. I mean half the population is at school age in this continent. Make sure they’re learning and then you transform your dreams into reality,” Dr. Sachs said.

Africa needs investment. “The most important (investment), every child on this continent should complete at least upper and secondary school with real learning,” he continued. Dr. Sachs explained that the continent as a unified body needs to “figure out how to do that.”

He also spoke on how electronic devices and technology can help in that effort, including having some classes online.

“It’s virtually free to do this. If you actually work out the capital costs, there should be no limits of teachers in rural areas or teachers that are under-qualified, or can’t do a math problem because we don’t need the traditional delivery as the only delivery of education right now. We’re in a digital world. You can leapfrog. Be creative. Be inventive. But take the basic idea. Don’t let the budget constraint stand in the way of universal quality education. It’s by far the number one resource of this continent and it’s growing very rapidly, and there is no demographic dividend of a young population if it is not educated. None at all. Only a burden,” he argued.

Another major investment is physical infrastructure. “That includes developing the power sector, the transport sector, the digital sector, social housing, water and sanitation, the key infrastructure. There needs to be an Africa-wide strategy that reaches down to every part of the continent,” he argued.

Dr. Sachs encouraged the energy or power sector to tap Africa’s wind, solar, hydro, and geothermal potential. “This continent has enough high-quality solar to power the entire world. As you know, we’ve all seen the ‘little box’ in the Sahara that has enough solar energy to power the entire world,” he said, referring to the Sahara Desert.

According to several published reports, the potential is limitless.

In a 2021 article in Forbes.com titled, “We Could Power The Entire World By Harnessing Solar Energy From 1% Of The Sahara,” it stated in part, “The Great Saharan Desert in Africa is 3.6 million square miles and is prime for solar power (more than 12 hours per day). That means 1.2% of the Sahara Desert is sufficient to cover all of the energy needs of the world in solar energy. There is no way coal, oil, wind, geothermal or nuclear can compete with this.”

The Sahara receives roughly enough sunlight in six hours to power on all of human civilization, for at least an entire year. Theoretically, this “box,” covering just 11.5 miles by 11.5 miles with high-efficiency solar panels, could meet the entire world’s electricity demand.

What will it take for Africa to achieve this kind of dynamism? According to Dr. Sachs, “Basically, be like China or be like India, unified, integrated structure, working on a continental scale economy with a continental scale policy and plan.”

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Historically, the occupier state of Israel has been on a so-called charm offensive focusing on the continent of Africa, whose 54 nation-states represent the UN’s largest voting bloc. Last year, 45% of UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions addressed crises in Africa.

Africa’s views of Israel are highly fragmented and are characterized by a complex mix of historical solidarity, economic pragmatism, and religious ties. While some countries on the continent actively deepen security and agricultural partnerships, others—most notably South Africa—view Israel’s policies in Gaza as severe human rights violations and have championed the Palestinian cause.

According to reporting from Al Jazeera, “African perspectives on Israel are deeply divided, reflecting a mix of strong diplomatic partnerships, religious ties, and vocal condemnations of the war in Gaza. While no African nation has officially cut all diplomatic ties (with Israel), continental opinions span from vehement opposition to pragmatic bilateral alliances.”

A June 4 Pew Research Center survey of global negative views of Israel has limited survey findings regarding the African continent. Africa, a continent with 54 nation states, is only represented in the survey by Nigeria as the one African country that was lumped in with others, including Australia, Italy, Poland, and the United Kingdom, in the category of very “unfavorable views” of Israel.

In another category in the Pew survey, “confidence in Netanyahu” included responses from Kenya and the Philippines. These, according to the Pew Center, are the only surveyed countries where more than half of the country’s public has “confidence in Netanyahu,” who is a global war criminal with an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC), accusing him of war crimes and crimes against humanity for the atrocities committed against the Palestinians in Gaza.

The Pew survey notes, “views of Israel are among the most positive in some of the sub-Saharan African countries surveyed.”

The occupier state is still working to embed itself more deeply into the African continent under the guise of security.

To give more context, South African governance analyst Dr. Reneva Fourie explained to Al Jazeera that by embedding itself into regional security structures, Israel gains allies who are less likely to challenge its military occupation. She explained that these so-called counterterrorism partnerships are used as a public relations tool to normalize Israel’s international standing while obfuscating the violence it inflicts upon Palestinians.

“These partnerships normalize Israel as a counterterrorism ally while deflecting attention from the fact that it is the perpetrator of state terror against Palestinians,” she noted.

“By embedding itself in African security structures, Israel not only profits from instability but also gains partners less likely to challenge its brutal military occupation and its genocidal atrocities,” she told Al Jazeera.

But even as the world watches in real time, Israel’s continued massacre of Palestinians and now the Lebanese people, the regime’s right-wing government continues to attempt to make more inroads in Africa.

Israel also has its sights on Sudan and is involved in the current war in the African country, and according to published reports, it represents an external, outside influence fueling the current conflict in Sudan. A headline from an op-ed published on the Middle East Monitor website notes, “Sudan crisis not accidental: Rogue regimes UAE (United Arab Emirates) and Israel complicit in the genocide.”

What is currently unfolding “extends to reshaping the balance of power in the Horn of Africa and not surprisingly involves Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE),” the Nov. 4, 2025, article noted. “Haaretz noted in August 2025 that Israel was exploiting Sudan’s war to justify military expansion in the Red Sea under the banner of ‘protecting global shipping lanes from Houthi threats,’’’ continued the article, referencing the Israel-based publication.

It is also being reported that Israel has leveraged the Sudan crisis to deepen its political footprint in Ethiopia and Eritrea, “as part of its broader plan to contain Iranian influence extending from Tehran to Sana’a and Khartoum,” the Middle East Monitor article continued.

Countries in Africa should proceed with caution when dealing with Israel and be careful about engaging in relationships under the guise of counterterrorism and security, as the Israeli regime continues to try to expand its footprint and influence in the region.

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