You can't projectize industrial policy. A caution against faddist approaches to industrial policy (the old industrial policy rules still apply) open.substack.com/pub/kenopalo...

African policymakers should be clear-eyed about the short and medium term impacts of the U.S./Israel-Iran war: www.africanistperspective.com/p/african-po...

From the archives as Ethiopia marks the 130th anniversary of the victory at Adwa. open.substack.com/pub/kenopalo...

Governments in the Horn must be careful not to play host to conflicts arising from rivalries on the other side of the Red Sea. open.substack.com/pub/kenopalo...

What lessons should African countries learn from the last commodity boom? And how should they prepare for the next one? open.substack.com/pub/kenopalo...

Appreciating @kopalo.bsky.social's recent post: www.africanistperspective.com/p/the-intern... & thinking his final suggestion on local knowledge production ('let 1000 think tanks bloom') resonates with our discussion on @rvinews.bsky.social 'Beyond research' podcast: riftvalley.net/multimedia_m...

Book Review: Mahmood Mamdani’s Slow Poison: Idi Amin, Yoweri Museveni open.substack.com/pub/kenopalo...

We just posted some (re)thinking about this, wrt Sudan and South Sudan. riftvalley.net/publication/...

The international development community isn’t adapting fast enough to official aid cuts. That’s a big problem. open.substack.com/pub/kenopalo...

The international development community isn’t adapting fast enough to official aid cuts. That’s a big problem: www.africanistperspective.com/p/the-intern...

Congratulations Senegal 🇸🇳!!! #AFCON2025

The Museveni Succession: www.africanistperspective.com/p/the-museve...

If only the United States of America had Strong Western Institutions. U.S. prosecutors are investigating Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over his testimony last summer about the central bank’s building renovation project. www.wsj.com/economy/cent...

Africa in 2026: figuring out how to grow during hard tines >> open.substack.com/pub/kenopalo...

Three things to read about Ethiopia and Somaliland: 1) Ethiopia needs access to the sea: www.africanistperspective.com/p/ethiopia-n... 2) The geopolitics of recognizing Somaliland: www.africanistperspective.com/p/recognizin...

Recognizing Somaliland: www.africanistperspective.com/p/recognizin...

Africa in 2025: A Review: open.substack.com/pub/kenopalo...

On #Nigeria: You never want to play host to other people’s wars. And you never want to internationalize your domestic security problems. Getting foreign assistance is fine. But you must always launder and domesticate it. You must always retain the initiative.

Ken says of Emancipation, it's his "best read of the year by far". Not too late to give as a gift this holiday season to anyone who wants to understand Africa's place in world history in the 20th century better.

Book Review: The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide, by @hofrench.bsky.social >> www.africanistperspective.com/p/book-revie...

I’m honored to have been selected for @voxdotcom’s #FuturePerfect25, a list of innovators, thinkers,  disruptors, and people on the ground who are advancing solutions for today’s (and  tomorrow’s) most pressing challenges in global health and development: www.vox.com/future-perfe...

Transformative national development (as opposed to nano-developmentalist nibbling at the margins) is the only way out of this. The sooner everyone is on the same page the better.

#COP30: Climate policymaking needs a developmentalist makeover via ⁦‪@AfricanBizMag‬⁩ african.business/2025/11/ener...

A podcast conversation with Lydia Polgreen @polgreen.bsky.social of the Times about my new book, The Second Emancipation, and about Africa's place in the world of today and tomorrow. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/o...

Hongera! (I’m sure there are those who disagreed with Mamdani on policy, but given the tone and tenor of much of the campaign, it’s nice to see that New Yorkers rejected deranged Islamophobia).

Guys. Everyone knows that all your parents’ cousins are your aunties and uncles.

Only way out of this is national development strategies. African policymakers should feel empowered to pursue pro-growth national development strategies. Don’t settle for marginal projects, regardless of who’s hawking them.

Raila Amolo Odinga: kenopalo.substack.com/p/raila-amol...

If the U.S. were a low-income country, right around now they'd have been hit with a range of economic sanctions designed to impoverish Americans into rising up to defend their democracy -- with predictable results.

The best thing is happening on the Substack!!! The share of subscribers based on the Continent is growing! www.africanistperspective.com

The geopolitics of international development (after foreign aid): www.africanistperspective.com/p/the-geopol...

How to build trust and capabilities for effective governance in Africa: world-bank-afronomics.captivate.fm/episode/how-...

It’s an odd time for anyone to be doubling down on deranged Islamophobia. www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

Great to see that the UK Development Minister is reading @cgdev.org NRF @kopalo.bsky.social & Stefan Dercon fabians.org.uk/publication/...

What a graph. via @semafor.com

I've bored on before about my view that the hidden assumption of the Left is that economics is bad and nasty, therefore the worse and nastier you're being, the better economics you're doing. The worst boss is always a squishy liberal acting how she thinks a hard nosed capitalist would.

African Foreign Policy in a Multipolar Age #UNGA80 kenopalo.substack.com/p/african-fo...

Absolutely glorious.

The most unlikely degrowthers: open.substack.com/pub/kenopalo...

“It can’t happen here” … yeah right.

On the rise and fall of STEM education in Kenya: www.africanistperspective.com/p/what-does-...

One day writers and editors in major international magazines will learn that the Continent has 54 countries with lots of variation.

Mission 300, championed by the World Bank & the AfDB, among others, needs a new mission. Electrifying African firms for growth and development: open.substack.com/pub/kenopalo...

Tomorrow's article is on the history of Yoruba cities

Among other things, the story of the relationship between these two regions over the last two centuries (and likely the next two) is one shaped in non-trivial ways by demography.

There will be no economic takeoff in Africa without lots of large (private sector) firms: www.africanistperspective.com/p/there-will...

Highly recommended: www.ourlongwalk.com/p/africa-who...

I doubt that Trump has read Fearon (1995), so he’s probably just grasping for reasons to abandon the victim of a foreign invasion. www.jstor.org/stable/2706903