The Mettaboy Report

It is two hundred years plus since Henry Stanley labelled Africa a ‘dark continent.’ Back then, most Western explorers and missionaries were attracted to the region’s strangeness: Africa’s pristine environment was a curiosity, its inhabitants were unknown and its subsoil was treasure trove— with potential to power industrial revolutions. Today, the pejorative tag is out of fashion.  Africa is increasingly rebranding itself as a ‘rising continent.’ Yet a dark scar continues to stick on its public health map. Unlike its exotic appeal, Africa’s hidden disease burden remains a product of policy neglect— collectively affecting the lives of its bottom 500 million citizens. This is more than half of its population-- in fact, even greater than Nigeria and South Africa combine. The World Health Organization has identified seventeen bio-medically dissimilar bacteria and parasitic infections which are linked together by their collective neglect in decisio...

At the just ended Mining Indaba, the African Union Commission celebrated the Africa Mining Vision day, with a high level ministerial symposium bringing together key stakeholders.   This year’s commemoration was set against a particularly challenging background. Unlike 2015, when signs of grim were just emerging, the outlook for the commodity sector has changed markedly. A simple google search, tags mining and gloom together in an upwardly trend.   It is hard to say how low mineral prices may go, before they can get better.   Every day seems to come with renewed uncertainties. The continuous sharp fall, certainly marks an end of more-than-a-decade long upward movement of prices. A period, whose fading phase, with hindsight, now seems to coincide with the adoption of the Africa Mining Vision, in 2009.   The slowdown in China, an economy which consumes almost half of world’s commodities, and the continued glut in the market, call for profound and ...