youth bulge
Betraying Africa’s young and desperate

Betraying Africa’s young and desperate

Book review The Outcast Majority: War, Development, and Youth in Africa by Marc Sommers, University of Georgia Press, 2015 In recent decades, a number of African countries have been wracked by war, among them Sierra...

Long sidelined, now centre stage

Long sidelined, now centre stage

During Zimbabwe’s last general election in 2013 the 89-year-old candidate Robert Mugabe of Zanu-PF cruised to victory after securing 61.09% of the vote, while his main rival, 60-year-old Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC-T...

The future is already here

The future is already here

Here’s a remarkable fact: the gap between the average age of rulers and the median age of the ruled is highest in Africa – at 62 and 19.5 respectively. This situation “raises concerns about how well decision makers...

Balancing the future with the present

Balancing the future with the present

Africa’s demographic advantages are well documented. Yet, of late, rapid changes and technological advances have divided opinions about these prospects. For many sceptics, the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) poses a...