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The African Union Development Agency-NEPAD: A contemporary paradigm
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Dr Ibrahim Assane Mayaki
Africa is in vibrant transition, said Dr Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, CEO of AUDA–NEPAD, in an interview with The Diplomatic Society. Dr Mayaki, the former Prime Minister of Niger, paid tribute to African excellence and extended his heartfelt congratulations to Diébédo Francis Kéré, the 56-year-old from Gando village in Burkina Faso who became the first African to be awarded the 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize, architecture’s highest international honour. Africans are being acknowledged for their prowess, skills and abilities around the world said Mayaki, who has come to the end of his tenure as Chief Executive of AUDA-NEPAD.
The inspiring architect from Burkina Faso who lifted world’s biggest prize
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Gando Primary School, photo courtesy of Erik-Jan Owerkerk
by Paulo Moreira, Researcher, Universidade de Lisboa
Diébédo Francis Kéré has become the first African and the first black person to be awarded architecture’s highest international honour, the 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize.
Francis Kéré is a 56-year-old internationally renowned architect. He was born in Gando, a small village in Burkina Faso. He turned his destiny around through education, becoming one of the most representative figures in the African diaspora.
As a child, Francis had to leave his family to attend school in the nearest town. Driven by his own optimism, and by the awareness that in his home country only education could make a difference, Kéré moved to Berlin on a carpentry scholarship and to study architecture. Even before he finished his studies, he designed a primary school in Gando.
In Germany he founded an association to raise funds to build the school, translated as ‘Bricks for Gando’, it was later renamed the Kéré Foundation.
The Gando school is a model of sustainable building. Its features include allowing cooling air to pass through and around the building. Another is its innovative use of widely available local resources – both materials and unskilled labour.
Positioning South Africa’s Diplomacy to Advance our Domestic Priorities
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This week South African Heads of Mission gathered in Tshwane for the 2022 Heads of Mission Conference. President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the HOM’s and stressed that they need to seek out new ways to grow trade and attract investment into South Africa and pave the way for outbound investment into existing and new markets. “We count on you to market abroad the immense opportunities that exist in the South African economy.”
Ramaphosa also said that in positioning South Africa’s diplomacy, the African agenda is paramount. “The continental response to COVID-19 has given the cause of African unity a new lease on life. Africa has found a new voice that is bold and unapologetic.
Undocumented Migrants – The Myths, Realities, and What we Know and Don’t Know
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The fact that we don’t actually know how many ‘undocumented’ migrants there are is, in part, attributable to a systemic problem of state administration with the Department of Home Affairs.
by Emmanuel Owusu-Sekyere, Deputy Research Director, The Brenthurst Foundation and Alexandra Willis, Machel-Mandela Fellow
Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia had planned a demonstration on Human Rights Day 2022 across South Africa, but alas it was banned by the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD). The aim of the ban was to avoid conflict since those involved in Operation Dudula had threatened to attack the anti-xenophobia march.
The JMPD could not guarantee the safety of both sides in a possible confrontation fueled by a concoction of mistruths and misperceptions about non-nationals being responsible for unemployment, crime and poverty in South Africa.
Egypt Is Open For Tourism: South Africans to get visa on arrival in Egypt
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Photo: Cairo on the Nile (pixabay)
In a step aiming at easing travel of South Africans to Egypt and strengthening ties between the two, Egypt announced this week that South Africans traveling to Egypt for tourism no longer have to acquire a prior visa from the Egyptian Embassies, and can now get their visa upon arrival at Cairo International Airport. This move is aimed at boosting the number of South African tourists going to the land of the pharaohs, a destination that has long been on the bucket list of many South Africans given Egypt’s rich cultural heritage and attractively priced seaside resorts.
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