Opinions

Jason Kasuto The expiration of the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) on September 30, 2025, signals a pivotal moment for Africa’s economic trajectory. Since its inception in 2000, AGOA has fuelled African aspirations by providing duty-free access to the lucrative US market—a beacon for growth, jobs, and infrastructure development across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). But with its demise, the continent faces both a challenge and an unprecedented opportunity to redefine its economic destiny beyond dependency. Understanding AGOA’s impact—A wake-up call for Africa While AGOA served as a vital bridge for SSA exports—ranging from textiles and apparel to critical minerals—it was…

Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro "We urgently need revolutions in all the independent African countries where the anti-colonial revolutions have not yet evolved into national democratic revolutions." They need the second phase of the African Revolution. They need national democratic revolutions.” Writes African ideologue from Botswana, the late Dr Goabonang Kenneth Shololo Koma, in his 1994 pamphlet titled The Second Phase of the African Revolution Has Now Begun. Which he was to follow up with another in which he was to propound and expound the agenda for the Second Phase of the African Revolution. It would be interesting to know if such a…

PAUL T. SHIPALE (with inputs by Folito Nghitongovali Diawara Gaspar) Date that lives in memory October 15th, or, for some, the dawn of the 16th, remains etched in Africa's collective conscience. It marks not merely a death, but the silencing of a revolutionary heartbeat: Thomas Sankara, the man who dared to reimagine what Africa could be. For me, this date carries a personal echo. I once had the rare honour of meeting Sankara – young, bold, and radiant with conviction. I placed a scarf around his neck not as a mere ceremonial gesture, but as a symbolic act of allegiance…