Why is it so difficult (and crazy expensive) to fly within Africa?
Thinking through the economics and politics of connectivity over a vast continent
EconomicsCulture
An Africanist Perspective.
African political economy, foreign affairs, and commentary.
Recent essays
21 of 21The mechanics of building strong states in 21st century Africa
On models of state-building and their applicability to the African context
How Sahelian (and African) militaries can get better at fighting and winning wars
African states will continue to struggle against non-state armed actors unless the region’s militaries undertake significant organizational and technological reforms.
Book Review (2/26): How Africa Works by Joe Studwell
On the past and future of African growth and development
A caution against faddist approaches to industrial policy (the old industrial policy rules still apply)
It’s a good thing that World Bank is finally OK with industrial policy, but policymakers shouldn’t let themselves be constrained by the coming prescriptive “best practices.”
African policymakers should be clear-eyed about the short and medium term impacts of the U.S./Israel-Iran war
Policymakers should prepare for the fact that the coming shocks to have long lags; and that the cadence of global crises will likely pick up.
Conflict in the Horn of Africa isn’t inevitable. People can choose peace.
Ideas matter. And it's high time key players in the Horn (politicians, academics, journalists, analysts, and military strategists) chose to escape the pro-war shackles of geography and history.
How African policymakers should prepare for the coming commodity boom
Projections point to elevated commodity prices in important sectors. Here's how African policymakers can avoid mistakes of the past.
Book Review (1/26): Mahmood Mamdani’s Slow Poison
A journey through Uganda’s stunted political development
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 commercial revolutions in low-income countries.
Africa in 2026
The 11 trends/factors that will shape African affairs in 2026
2025: Year in Review
Political and economic divergence on the Continent continues apace
Book Review (12/25): The Second Emancipation
Explorations in African leadership
Firms or Families? Another installment in the Mission 300 electrification debate
On the politics and logics of policy tradeoffs
Raila Amolo Odinga
The man whose political career defined Kenya’s multiparty politics
The geopolitics of international development (after foreign aid)
You can't have nice things without strategic independence and policy autonomy
The most unlikely degrowthers
On why the World Bank and other multilaterals should recalibrate their climate projects in low-income countries
Electrifying African firms for growth and development
On the urgent need to rethink the core goals of Mission 300
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)
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
How Ethiopia avoided colonization in the late 19th century but then lagged behind in the 20th century
Lessons in stateness, (failed) modernization, and economic (under)development