At the 9th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), 49 Heads of African states convened under the theme “co-create innovation solutions with Africa.” Japan has announced financial commitments for several collaborative initiatives. Yet, as a recent Mo Ibrahim Foundation report emphasizes, financing Africa’s future requires ownership, autonomy, and accountability to truly realize the vision of “the Africa we want.”

A controversial news headline by the Atlantic that described the ongoing civil war in Sudan as the “War about nothing” has sparked critiques from many quarters, including from five Sudanese nationals who offer perspectives on how the war is really about everything: foreign interests in resources, lost livelihoods, and resilient survival (pg. 13-20).

• A new Black women-led infrastructure investment entity in South Africa, Motseng Ideas Infrastructure Group (MIIG), is set to champion high-impact infrastructure programs in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.
• William Matlala, a documentary photographer, speaks to Okay Africa about his decades-long mission to capture the dignity of black workers and communities in apartheid South Africa
• This year’s Chale Wote Street Art festival in Ghana showcased contemporary artistic expressions alongside traditional practices. The theme “The Orbs Beneath the Nile Lead to the Kongo” considers how ancestral geographies may be relevant points of reference for political consciousness across Africa.

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Image: Chale Wote Street Art Festival is a Ghanaian-originated platform that brings together art, music, dance, and performance on the streets of Accra. August 27, 2021. Photo Credit: Fquasie/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0.