Ethiopia
Thwarted emergence
Ethiopia, the only African country that was never subjugated to colonial rule, is a “free land” with a very long history. It ranks among the oldest continuously operating states in the world. Its emperors saw themselves as the descendants of the Bible’s King David (which led to their deification by the Rastafarians) until the last one, Haile Selassie, who was toppled in 1974.
Dans la même rubrique
The December 2022 World Cup in Qatar had a major impact on Morocco’s global image after it became the first African country to qualify for the semi-finals. From Africa to the Arab world, France, Europe, the United States, Latin America, Australia and Japan, the global media cast a spotlight on the courageous and talented underdog team that knocked heavyweights like Spain and Portugal out of the competition.
Nearly 30 years after the genocide, the “land of a thousand hills” is almost everywhere, including on the Arsenal and PSG clubs’ jerseys emblazoned with the slogan “Visit Rwanda”. The country has rolled out its communication and development model even with modest means. Under the iron-fisted leadership of Paul Kagame, the former military leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, the tiny, overcrowded nation (13.5 million people, 26,300 km2) has become a tech hub by luring investors, entrepreneurs and start-ups with administrative incentives, tax breaks and five-year plans. “Work hard until it hurts, because poverty hurts even more,” the president likes to say.
Three decades after the end of apartheid, South Africa is in deep crisis, plagued by power outages, corruption, poor governance, crime and other scourges. And yet the African National Congress (ANC), which will almost certainly remain in power for the foreseeable future because of demographics and the fragmentation of the opposition, seems frozen in time.