Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
Anthony Ohemeng-Boamah

Creator

Anthony Ohemeng-Boamah

is a staff member of the UN Development Programme. He is an expert on helping countries overcome development challenges.

Pan-Africanism: Delegates of the fifth Pan-African Congress, Manchester, 1945. Photo:  The Working Class Movement Library

SA and the crisis of a Union of African Peoples

The sight of human beings being hunted, threatened or treated as disposable because they are perceived to be foreign is morally troubling.

The case for directing more capital through the African Development Bank is equally strong. But the agenda cannot end with two institutions. Africa also needs deeper stock exchanges and bond markets and better links between them, so that domestic capital can move more efficiently, transparently and across borders.
File Photo

Africa should use more of its own capital to build its future

But the continent will not be able to do this at scale without having credible rules, institutional independence and effective supervision in place

Bafana Bafana will take on Mexico in the opening game on 11 June. (Bafana Bafana/X)

Ode to football: Can the FIFA World Cup bring peace to the world?

The FIFA World Cup begins on 11 June 2026, hosted across Canada, Mexico and the United States—the first time the tournament has been shared by three countries. It opens, however,…

On AI itself, Pope Leo calls for technological projects that protect what he describes as the grandeur of humanity. He warns against reducing people to measurable outputs, predictive profiles or behavioural categories.

Pope Leo’s AI encyclical and the urgent need for human leadership

He warns against reducing people to measurable outputs, predictive profiles or behavioural categories. Once technology becomes the standard by which human beings are judged, it…

Africa does not lack ideals; it has proclaimed them often and well. What it now requires is discipline, execution and political courage on a continental scale. The most fitting tribute to the founders will not be remembrance. It will be readiness.

Africa Day and the measure of a continent

Africa Day should not be observed merely as a ritual of speeches and nostalgia. It should be approached as a test.

Until the AU can fund a much greater share of its own agenda and use Africa’s financial institutions more strategically, its agency will remain constrained. (HRW)

Agency, autonomy, and the African Union

Until the AU can fund a much greater share of its own agenda and use Africa’s financial institutions more strategically, its agency will remain constrained

The virus takes its name from the Ebola River, near the site of one of the first recorded outbreaks in what is now the DRC, in 1976.

Ebola, conflict and disease surveillance

The virus takes its name from the Ebola River, near the site of one of the first recorded outbreaks in what is now the DRC, in 1976. Four of these six species are known to cause…

French President Emmanuel Macron during the Africa Forward Summit in Kenya. (KNA/Facebook)

Africa Forward Summit and President Macron screamed

Whatever Macron’s scream was — the decibel, the disaffection, the outrance — it carried a message: Africa will have to learn to speak with one voice if it is to shape, rather…

Rising globally: The Argentinian team celebrates winning the WorldCup in Qatar in 2022. Cameroon, Senegal
and Ghana each reached the quarter-finals and Morocco went further by reaching the semi-finals. Photo: Fifa

World Cup as a gauge of African progress

The journey from a solitary representative in 1934 to unprecedented representation in 2026 is a measure of the continent’s long but undeniable march towards footballing recognition

Role model: The Dangote refinery in Nigeria is a reminder that African ambition can materialise under the right conditions. Photo: Dangote Industries

Africa can survive global shock

The Dangote refinery in Nigeria offers a reminder that African ambition can materialise when the enabling environment and project size meet. AfCFTA’s promise is to replicate…

The refusal to allow the cruise ship to dock in Cape Verde is an expression of the post-Covid-19 post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from which the world suffers. Photo: Cruisemapper

A cruise ship, hantavirus and global PTSD

The memory of the Covid-19 shock shapes how governments and publics react to any new outbreak with even a hint of international spread

China says it will grant zero-tariff treatment to imports from the 53 African countries with which it maintains diplomatic relations

China’s zero-tariff offer to Africa: windfall—or Trojan horse?

Africa can use this window to upgrade standards, build processing capacity, and diversify into higher-value exports. Or it can sprint toward short-term volumes and lock itself…

The UN faces a pivotal moment. To stay relevant and advance human rights, reform must move beyond basic housekeeping.

UN reform: Tackling three interrelated challenges

The UN faces a pivotal moment. To stay relevant and advance human rights, reform must move beyond basic housekeeping. It should be based on fairness, inclusivity, and efficiency

Vital role: Unifil at work in south Lebanon. Photo: Unifil-Pio

Dangers of killing peacekeepers

Each unaddressed attack undermines the UN’s legitimacy and reinforces perceptions of impotence

Drones have the potential to intensify destruction in modern warfare. The ongoing conflict between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese government serves as a  case in point.

Africa must address the strategic impact of drones on future wars to preserve peace

New and emerging technologies should serve peace, not conflict

For more than four centuries, millions of Africans were forcibly captured, commodified, transported and exploited within a global system that underpinned the rise of modern economies. Photo: Rjruiziii

Applause for UN decision to finally name slavery for what it was

The resolution also reaffirms that crimes against humanity are not subject to statutes of limitation. This principle, echoed across legal and moral traditions, reflects a simple…

Canada’s Prime Minister, Mark Carney. (World Economic Forum)

The UN, Africa and the Canadian Prime Minister’s 2026 Davos Statement

Canada’s Prime Minister, Mark Carney, offered a blunt assessment of global governance, describing what he termed a ‘middle-power revolt’ against ‘performative multilateralism’