All Protocol Observed Welcome to Issue 208 of The Continent A gold discovery near Zambia’s West Lunga Park has triggered a chaotic rush. Thousands have flooded Kikonge, clashes have turned deadly, and illegal buyers are cashing in. A gold rush means risk, riches, and unrest. bit.ly/TC_208

I'm sorry if this is antisemitic but I think it's wrong to deliberately starve thousands of children to death.

Example of what happens when a mainstream economist discovers structural inequality (without 'discovering' the theories to explain it): very impressive empirical documentation of it + completely out-of-touch assumptions about how to fix it (taxation, cheap debt, human capital).

My home institution is under threat: The Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at @freieuniversitaet.bsky.social needs your solidarity. Planned budget cuts by the city and university leadership threaten the vital, critical work coming out of this space #SaveBerlinAnthropology

The Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at @freieuniversitaet.bsky.social needs our solidarity. Planned budget cuts by the city and university leadership threaten the vital, critical work coming out of this space. Let’s not let it go quiet. #SaveBerlinAnthropology

At a time when there is a shift to right-wing and authoritarian forces and an increasing hostility towards the social sciences and humanities, social and cultural anthropology is more important than ever: www.linkedin.com/pulse/instit...

I want to believe in self-care and black joy, even though I experience everything today as co-opted and commodified. So watching Angela Davis play squash before heading to her job teaching women inmates was a blast from the past.

Thrilled to have the English-language version of my article on "Becoming an Author in Times of Asymmetric Ignorance" come out in the @postcolh.bsky.social "Virtual Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies" right in time for my presentation at @ergvidsu.bsky.social on Tuesday! tinyurl.com/pdep62fr

There is no freedom for women in this neoliberal capitalist takeover of International Women’s Day. www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/why-...

Just two years after the peace deal that ended the civil war, tensions in Ethiopia’s Tigray region are simmering. In the previous conflict, Ethiopia and Eritrea fought together against the Tigrayans. This time round, Asmara appears to be backing a hardline Tigrayan faction Via @thecontinent.org

Some people think that the demise of USAID is good news. Wasn't USAID a tool of US imperialism? A prominent proponent of this line of thinking is Patrick Gathara, a senior editor at @newhumanitarian.bsky.social His argument is ill-informed and wrong.

Second: Yes, humanitarianism has colonial roots. But Indifference has colonial roots too. The main legacy of colonialism is not compassion. It’s indifference. Colonial politics were not primarily about pity or about saving lives. They were about letting people die.

A younger Adichie might have penned just such a novel. What a pity that the new Adichie — the defensive celebrity, the territorial feminist — seems no longer capable of writing such a book. www.vulture.com/article/chim...

The number of civilians casualties from #drone strikes in #Ethiopia is rising sharply with the arrival of new Turkish #drones. The lackluster international attitude on drone warfare is sending states on a killing spree. Strong piece by @zekuzelalem.bsky.social ecfr.eu/publication/...

Sell your Tesla stock, and burn apartheid clyde's paper wealth as a bonus 🔥🔥🔥

All Protocol Observed. Welcome to Issue 192 of The Continent. Botswana prepared for drought. Then it flooded. Climate chaos is the new normal. Get your copy here: bit.ly/TheContinent...

just an incredible episode. Make time for it.

Recent ethnic cleansing campaigns in Sudan and Ethiopia remind us Zero Discrimination Day (1 March) still marks a distant aspiration. Based on 46,269 face-to-face interviews conducted by Afrobarometer, we may be losing ground. Via @thecontinent.org

Today's @thecontinent.org cover if you are looking for African news with a bit of humor, give them a subscription👇🏿

Enjoying the woke wars? I was on @thedigradio.bsky.social with @danieldenvir.bsky.social, @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social, and @keeanga.bsky.social to think on MAGA racism, identity politics, liberalism, and the anti-woke left. We aren’t really having any of it. www.thedigradio.com/podcast/woke...

This is remarkable. The last of 8 patients who tested positive for Ebola Sudan has been discharged. Now the 42 day count down to this outbreak being officially declared over is on. Only 1 fatality is a remarkable feat.🤞 Kudos to front line responders in #Uganda www.independent.co.uk/news/ebola-u...

it's really saying something that this is how an apparent friend explains Elon's goals www.vanityfair.com/news/story/e...

Germany's far left had its best electoral result in years. Which, while still only 9%, is a sign that whatever centrism is supposed to be doing, people are not happy with it. And since they grabbed the greatest share of 18-24 year olds, those unhappy people are the future.

Our two party system makes even modest results like this nearly impossible

Also, 4 in 5 did not. The AfD underperformed polling, meaning the fear of "shy" AfD voters in DKs did not materialise. Maybe most important: despite terror attacks, Musk & JD Vance's support, and a river of dark money and AI disinformation, the AfD *lost* a couple of %pts in 2025. I'll take it.

The young vote in Germany, by gender. 😳

agree this reading

This gets at the problem of how difficult to actually address the rise of the far right via govt policy and how it is much more than the cry of the forgotten man.

One of my best friends is from a sleepy, wealthy small town in the south-west of Germany. He said, so many of my parents’ neighbours are rich and bored, with little to complain about, and they’ve radicalised themselves at dinner parties and online. In their aimlessness, they’ve bonded over hate.

I know the material reasons for the rise of fascism. I also think another reason - which doesn’t get talked about as much because it’s embarrassing that humans can be that naive - is that when you are financially comfortable but bored, abstract cruelty can give you a sense of purpose.

All Protocol Observed Welcome to Issue 191 of The Continent The Sudanese army is closing in on the Republican Palace in Khartoum – but the war is far from over. Get your copy, for free, here: bit.ly/TC191

Your weekly dose of excellent African journalism! ✨ The latest issue of The Continent dives into Sudan’s escalating conflict, South Africa’s state visit offer to Ukraine, a stolen artifact’s return to Nigeria, and more. Essential reading from across the continent. 👇

someone i admire and listen to said to me recently “fuck you is like a sledgehammer, good for knocking things down but you’re gonna need other tools to rebuild.”

. You young kids have no idea how lucky we are to have social media. When I was your age, I had to be condescending & superior to one person at a time.

All Protocol Observed Welcome to Issue 190 of The Continent The world order is disintegrating. Whose interests will the African Union serve now? Read it here: bit.ly/TC190

I really love @thecontinent.org. Highly recommended.

Delighted to receive a package of bound galleys of my forthcoming book, The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide. Out in August.

There is an absolutely vital article, or perhaps book, that could be written about the development of the Left from a political project into an internet-based youth subculture and academic sub-discipline. Everyone would hate it.

leftism has some really easy ins right now to get normies on board everything about normal life is so expensive that only rich people can afford a lifestyle that used to be considered middle class the rich bought our government and dismantled the New Deal

Tesla has become central to all of our future, unfortunately. The valuation story of Tesla is key to EloMus's rise to become the world's wealthiest man–a wealth that has been transformed into an unprecedented political power of capital since his alliance with the far-right.

What is happening in the Gezira, the systematic and targeted killings of South Sudanese and members of Kanabi communities by SAF shows us very clearly that they too alongside the RSF, are the oppressors. They always have been and they will never liberate Sudan!

We ignore Sudan at our peril. This campaign of mass murder and rape will have global consequences | Nesrine Malik

The two co-winners for best essay by a junior scholar are Efemia Chela and Renugan Raidoo. Chela published “Dancing with Decolonial Praxis: LBQ Women and Non-Binary People’s Subcultures in Lusaka, Zambia” in Gender & Development. She offers an engagingly written account of clandestine...

Octavia Butler couldn’t see the future. She saw what was happening in front of her and, in addition to studying the past, was able to imagine where it would lead. It’s important to tell the truth about her because mythologizing her is a disservice to her legacy.

„When I was preparing to write Parable of the Talents, I needed to think about how a country might slide into fascism–something that America does in Talents. So I reread The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and other books on Nazi Germany“ commongood.cc/reader/a-few...

I spent some time at a remote monastery in Ethiopia's Tigray region, learning how the community that safeguards the world's world's oldest 'illuminated' christian gospels are coping with traumatic grief in the aftermath of war My feature for @newlinesmag.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/reportage/th...