Emerging market debt sales hit January record despite elusive flows, will rise to $165b this year

Emerging market debt sales hit January record despite elusive flows, will rise to $165b this year

According to JPMorgan calculations, adding coupons to maturities and comparing to gross issuance should have left dedicated emerging markets hard currency funds with a $78 billion cash pile to invest over the past two years. But taking into account outflows, that would have shrunk to just $8 billion, the bank said in a recent note to clients.

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Rethinking African education policy: Education is meaningless unless you understand the vast expanse of life, its sorrows and joys

Rethinking African education policy: Education is meaningless unless you understand the vast expanse of life, its sorrows and joys

We know “an expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less until he or she knows absolutely everything about nothing” about the world about him or her.

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Grammys 2024: South African Tyla bags best African performance category to underline social media role in African music on global charts

Grammys 2024: South African Tyla bags best African performance category to underline social media role in African music on global charts

Tyla beat Nigerian stars: Davido, Burna Boy, Asake and Ayra Starr to win a Grammy for Best African Music Performance category. The Water hitmaker’s win has revived the rivalry between Nigerians and South Africans on social media ahead of the semifinal on Wednesday, February 7.

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Namibia president and anti-apartheid activist Hage Geingob dies, succeeded by deputy Nangolo Mbumba

Namibia president and anti-apartheid activist Hage Geingob dies, succeeded by deputy Nangolo Mbumba

Hage Geingob leaves behind a middle-income country fighting to push economic growth above three per cent following a pandemic-era slowdown and reverse racial inequalities left over from colonialism and annexation by South Africa’s former white minority government.

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Senegalese President Sall calls off vote three weeks to poll citing unspecified ‘electoral issues’

Senegalese President Sall calls off vote three weeks to poll citing unspecified ‘electoral issues’

Ndiack Fall, law professor at Dakar’s Cheikh Anta Diop University, noted that, according to the constitution, Sall’s mandate ends on April 2 after which the president of parliament should be in charge if the election has still not been held.

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World music revolution: How and why Africa had fastest-growing recorded music revenues in 2022

World music revolution: How and why Africa had fastest-growing recorded music revenues in 2022

There is also Afrobeat – different from Afrobeats – a blend of jazz, funk and traditional West African rhythms popularised by Nigerian musical icon and political agitator Fela Kuti in the 1970s. Then there’s Afropop, a rich variety of contemporary styles. The traditional soukous dance music out of Congo and other parts of Central Africa. The rhythmical and heavily vocal shaabi and chaabi heard on the streets of North Africa. Kenya’s benga and Tanzania’s bongo flava reverberate across dance floors in East Africa, just as fuji and highlife do in West Africa.

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How Houthi militants in Yemen attack ships in one of world’s busiest maritime trade routes

How Houthi militants in Yemen attack ships in one of world’s busiest maritime trade routes

Houthi attacks have targeted ships in the southern Red Sea and the neighbouring Gulf of Aden, which are joined by the Bab al-Mandab strait, a chokepoint between the Horn of Africa and the Middle East.

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Reculturalisation: Long demonised as satanic, African-inspired religions are gaining traction in Latin America

Reculturalisation: Long demonised as satanic, African-inspired religions are gaining traction in Latin America

Followers of African-based religions are on the rise in South America new data shows, a reflection of how the region’s African heritage is gaining a greater voice beyond Brazil where such traditions are widely recognised.

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Africa Cup of Nations: Congo win first match of Ivory Coast tournament to book semi-final berth

Africa Cup of Nations: Congo win first match of Ivory Coast tournament to book semi-final berth

DR Congo, who won the last of two Cup of Nations titles in 1974 when they were still known as Zaire, now take on either hosts Ivory Coast or Mali in the semi-final in Abidjan on Wednesday.

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Italy PM pledges new partnership with Africa but critics say indebted Rome can’t rival China, Russia

Italy PM pledges new partnership with Africa but critics say indebted Rome can’t rival China, Russia

However, there was a note of discord from some of those present, with Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairman of the African Union Commission, saying he wished Africa had been consulted first on priorities and emphasising the need to honour commitments.

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