For decades, African economies have operated within a system of rules established without their participation. Credit ratings, which dictate the cost of borrowing, are assigned by three Western agencies. Trade is conducted in dollars via SWIFT—a system that, as it turns out, can be switched off for political reasons. Today, that order is no longer […]

In the news feeds, Libya and Sudan exist as separate storylines: one is remembered when the conversation turns to migrants, the other when bombs fall on Khartoum. Two wars. Two countries. Four thousand kilometers of coastline that never meet, and a thousand kilometers of shared desert that connects everything. On the map of real influence, […]