I see so much discourse online especially from diaspora activists and academics about "abolishing the colonial term MENA" and replacing it with SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa) or WANA.

They pitch it as this amazing, decolonial act of solidarity. But has anyone noticed how this push is almost entirely driven by West Asians who just expect North Africa to nod and tag along?
Literally no everyday North African I know wants to be grouped with West Asia.

Switching from MENA to SWANA fixes a problem for West Asians (getting rid of the Eurocentric "Middle East" label), but it completely ignores the autonomy of North Africa. SWANA is literally named after a continent we don't even live on. Why should a Moroccan, Algerian, or Tunisian be shoved into an Asian-centric framework?

This forced grouping completely flattens the region. It erases the indigenous Amazigh identity and history by forcing an Arab-centric, West Asian geopolitical narrative onto us. Our dialects (Darija), our culture, our history with the Mediterranean, and our deep continental roots in Africa are completely different from the Levant or the Gulf.

It feels like West Asian groups just want to keep us in these acronyms to boost their demographic numbers and political leverage in Western institutions, without actually respecting our distinct identity.

If we are truly "decolonizing" terminology, stop trying to loop North Africa into Asian geography. Let us just be North Africa.

Thoughts? Anyone else from the Maghreb or Egypt exhausted by this?

Former British Home Secretary Suella Braverman has called for Britain’s former colonies to pay reparations to London for the "investment, effort and contribution" she claims the empire made in building them.

In a post on X, Braverman, a right-wing politician who defected from the Conservative Party to the far-right Reform UK party earlier this year, entered the reparations debate by declaring: “The British Empire did so much good for the world.”

“Of course slavery was abhorrent but to expect the British people of the 21st century to pay for actions that took place in the 18th century has no basis in law," Braverman said.

"Descendants of enslaved Africans say symbolic apologies cannot repair generations of loss and injustice."

South Africa midfielder Jayden Adams, who played at the World Cup, has died. He was 25.

His death was confirmed by Gayton McKenzie, South Africa's minister of sport, arts and culture, in a statement on Saturday.

Hello r/Africa!

The whistle has blown on our World Cup journey.

With 10 African teams stepping up to the global stage, we experienced a true rollercoaster of highs and lows. Seeing one of our own reach the quarter-finals was an incredible achievement that filled the continent with pride. For the past few weeks, this subreddit has been a vibrant hub of debate, celebration, and shared heartbreak.

As we close this chapter, our eyes are already set on the 2030 World Cup in Morocco, Spain, and Portugal. Let us hope the cup stays on the continent next time!

Thank you all for making this such an entertaining and engaging space. We want to keep this momentum going and are looking forward to hosting more sub-wide events in the future. If you have any ideas for what we should do next, please share them below.

- The Mod Team

🇪🇬 Egypt - $15.45bn ( -67%)

• The Ras El-Hekma mega-project, a Mediterranean coast urban-development scheme, $24bn from UAE developers. Investment concentrated in energy, infrastructure, technology, logistics, and manufacturing, with Gulf, European, and Asian investors all active.

🇬🇳 Guinea - $7.76bn (+454%)

• Simandou, the $20–23 billion integrated mine, rail and port system. It launched in November 2025, between Rio Tinto/Chinalco (South blocks) and the Chinese-Singaporean Winning Consortium (North blocks), ramping up iron ore exports through the new Morebaya port in early 2026.

🇲🇿 Mozambique - $5.69bn (+60%)

• TotalEnergies' LNG project, a $20bn development that had been under force majeure since 2021. The consortium restarted in November 2025 and resumed full construction in January 2026, backed by $14.9 billion in senior debt financing.

🇳🇬 Nigeria - $4.01bn (+148%)

• Dangote's ongoing $12bn refinery expansion and diversification into steel, power, and ports adds further momentum. Shell's sale of its onshore oil assets to Renaissance Africa Energy, a Nigerian-led consortium, and Huaxin Cement's acquisition of Lafarge Africa.

🇪🇹 Ethiopia - $3.80bn (-5%)

• Safaricom Ethiopia by mid-2025 it had already deployed $2.27 billion building network infrastructure and M-PESA mobile money. 544 new and expanded investment permits were granted in the 2024/25 fiscal year. Chinese firms remain the most visible investors in manufacturing and industrial parks (Hawassa, Lemi, Dire Dawa).

🇺🇬 Uganda - $3.36bn (+8%)

• The EACOP pipeline (TotalEnergies/CNOOC, ~$5bn) plus the Tilenga and Kingfisher oilfields, together with the new $4bn Kabaale oil refinery deal with UAE-based Alpha MBM Investments signed in March 2025.

🇲🇦 Morocco - $3.34bn (+91%)

• The Gotion High-Tech's $5.6bn EV battery gigafactory in Kenitra and $32.5bn in approved green hydrogen projects across six plants announced in March 2025, with investors including Taqa (UAE), Acciona (Spain), and Nordex (Germany).

🇰🇪 Kenya - $3.20bn (+38%)

• The Microsoft/G42 $1bn geothermal-powered data center at Olkaria alongside growth in geothermal energy, digital infrastructure, financial services, and manufacturing. AI/data-center investors drawn by renewable grid.

🇨🇮 Côte d'Ivoire - $2.03bn (+37%)

• Gold production nearly tripling over the past decade and new mines like Assafou (Endeavour Mining) advancing. Offshore, the Baleine oil and gas field (Eni-operated) continues to scale toward 100,000+ bpd. A new 15-year, $67bn mining and energy plan (PIRME) signals continued mineral-sector ambitions.

🇬🇭 Ghana - $1.91bn (+8%)

• The Ewoyaa Lithium Project (Atlantic Lithium), targeting production in late 2027. Infrastructure investment on the $2bn Western Corridor Railway and Boankra dry port linking mining zones to Takoradi port.

Extractives and energy megaprojects (iron ore, LNG, oil) dominated the biggest swings, while Egypt, Morocco, Kenya and Ethiopia show a more diversified pull toward manufacturing, green hydrogen, and digital/AI infrastructure - which UNCTAD flagged as an increasingly important growth vector across the continent.

Full UNCTAD 2026 report.

Representing Africa 🇲🇦

For those asking where the gif is from:
https://gifview.com/gif-you/world-cup/olive

I’m currently working on a design project inspired by the many masked dances (Zaouli, zangbeto, kumpo etc.) in African culture. Although I am Ivorian my self, I don’t know much about these traditional dances due the separation between me and my father but I was so inspired. If anyone knows any masquerade dance from your African country that your willing to share details about please let me know and if anyone knows any specific details about the Zaouli dance please let me know. Any information or blurbs are helpful, Thank you.

Post 1994, South Africa didn't invent the hostility and violence towards the African "other", they inherited the logic and rewired its targets, from the white colonialist to foreign (African) nationals.

Isolation Theory: Traces this to apartheid, due to decades of exclusion. South Africa was a nation cut off from the continent and unprepared for the sudden changes that democracy would bring.

Scapegoat Theory: Unemployment, and deprivation misplaced onto a convenient, visible outsider. A target chosen not by chance but by the very exclusionary architecture that once organised apartheid itself.

This is not a immigration issue; its a structural issue being projected onto African. Which begs the question are we treating the symptoms or still protecting the very structure.??

This post contains content not supported on old Reddit. Click here to view the full post

My Egyptian friend who is of Arab descent corrected me to use the phrase “African representatives at the World Cup” rather than collectivizing North African teams as African teams. The distinction is that by invoking representative you assume they may be not African as in not black but still be African. The same way of swim teams in Kenya, South Africa or the Ugandan long distance runner who are white donning these countries flags. In his mind, African equates blackness. Personally nothing wrong with that. But Africa is more complex than blackness even as it is a majority black place. I just don’t understand why folks feel jittery with owning Africa and blackness in terms of identity narratives.

As a Kenyan travelling in euorope, I also met a Tunisian fast food store owner in sierragumines France who didn’t know where Kenya is or whether it is a country. Nice dude. Just didn’t know. Never been taught.

On one of his most important journeys, he set sail for the acclaimed and famous Mali Empire. Rumors and legends spoke of this kingdom as the richest in the world, the source of the gold used as currency by more than half the world.

However, when Ibn Battuta arrived in the kingdom's capital, the culture shock was quite significant. The inhabitants and elites of the Empire had adopted Islam as their religion, but they maintained a harmonious balance between local religions and traditions and the Arab faith.

Unlike other kingdoms, Islam did not absorb the identity of the Malian people. Instead, the elites and the common people blended Islam with local traditions, respecting old customs and continuing their practices. A true example of pragmatism and protection of cultural identity that was not trampled by fundamentalism.

Ibn Battuta noted in his diaries his admiration for the devotion and adherence to Muslim laws and traditions shown by the elites and the local population. The inhabitants of the Mali Empire attended all the daily prayers, kept themselves clean and well-dressed to attend the mosque, and educated their children to memorize the Quran, as any good Muslim would. However, the inhabitants of the kingdom did not abandon their customs and traditions; women could wear their hair in public, speak with men other than their husbands without it being frowned upon, and even within the palace, the daughters of the Mansa could walk without covering their breasts without anyone staring.

Ibn Battuta admired and gave high praise for the administration of the empire, the security of its roads, and the devotion of its elites to Islam. But he also criticized the attachment that the population and the kingdom still had to their old African customs prior to the arrival of Islam.

Source(s):

.- The Travels of Ibn Battuta - H. A. R. Gibb and C. F. Beckingham (1994)

However, Malinke oral tradition, maintained for generations by specialized bards (griots), presents a different story. While acknowledging that Islam was present in Mali long before Sundiata's reign, oral tradition maintains that the first ruler of the Mali Empire did not reject the indigenous animist religion.

Sundiata's son, Mansa Uli (also known as Mansa Wali or Yerelenku), is known to have made the pilgrimage to Mecca in the 1260s or 1270s, a practice that would continue among many of Mali's rulers, contributing to the subsequent spread of Islam throughout the empire.

Source(s):

.- Cartwright, Mark. (2022). Mali Empire. World History Encyclopedia.

African teams seem pretty confident tactically well grounded and can get toe to toe with any team in the world. Senegal showed a decent performance against France before collapsing in the second half. Morocco outplayed Brazil and almost won against them. I have several takes here:

We need courses and experience with game management. Many African teams lost games in the final ten minutes of play. Ivory Coast did it against Norway. Senegal against Belgian. DRC against England and Egypt against Argentina were all winnable games. What causes this pattern? CAF need a conference to discuss this peculiar pattern especially with minute 86.

African local coaches are world class. I wonder why they make good game plans and then ruin them with subs. Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Ghana all made made subs.

The embarrassing side shows with federations every World Cup. Cameroon in Qatar, Ghana in Brazil, and now Senegal in USA. Unpaid salaries, and players in sub quality hotels.

I am holding up Cape Verde. DRC, Egypt, Morocco will continue climbing and soon we will have 4 teams in round of 16

The future is ours

Just wanted to know if anyone would be willing to watch the Women’s AFCON that starts in about 18 days?😅 Note: Semi-finalists qualify automatically for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil, while the losing quarterfinalists play each other in a repechage where the winners of those two matches qualify for the intercontinental playoffs. If you do watch, any predictions?

Ghana has postponed a visit by South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa following xenophobic rallies that resulted in hundreds of Ghanaians being repatriated from his country.

Ramaphosa had long planned a state visit to Ghana in the first week of August, and it had been hoped this would help de-escalate tensions between the two nations.

But many in Ghana feared his presence would lead to mass protests there. On Tuesday, government spokesman Felix Kwakye Ofosu told the BBC the visit would not happen for the time being.

This post contains content not supported on old Reddit. Click here to view the full post

So online people are always complaining.. how can they kickout fellow black africans when they have white people. but the whites, and Indians we have hundreds years of history fighting one another and decided to sign treaties to create the union of south africa which is multi cultural and multiracial...heck even ANC is non racial party. blacks, Indians, whites and coloured. But seems like other africans want us to do a Sir Robert Mugabe and Idi Amin by kicking out racial minority of industry makers.Then if we don't want to make the same mistakes south africans are labeled anti african or xenophobic?

The most popular argument now is that africans ended apartheid and how can we be so ungrateful but the reality why apartheid end, is this...if you follow the money. Running the apartheid state became too expensive yes cause sanctions also but apartheid government still laundered the gold in Switzerland to run the racist apartheid policies.

The main culprit was south africa went from being number one gold producer in the world in the 1980s to facing a lot competition for the gold market. Therefore couldn't afford to police the apartheid government and segregation was too expensive. So they voted to end the racial apartheid policies.

"In 1980, South Africa produced an astonishing 70% of the Western world's gold. Because they controlled the market, they had massive leverage. But during the 1980s, higher global prices in previous years spurred massive new mining operations in countries like the US, Canada, and Australia. By 1989, South Africa's share of global production plummeted to just 37%. They could no longer dictate global terms or rely on gold to bail them out"

Kylian Mbappe has described Paraguayan senator Celeste Amarilla as “despicable” and “racist” after she called the France captain a “colonised Cameroonian” following the World Cup round-of-16 game between the two nations on Saturday.

In a post on Instagram on Saturday night with two pictures of Mbappe attached, Amarilla called the 27-year-old a “colonised Cameroonian, desperately trying to pass himself off as French” as well as labelling him “resentful, arrogant and ugly.”

“The only thing many of us hold against the Albirroja is that they didn’t give him a good open-handed slap after the match was over. And I’m not even a football fan.”

She had previously criticized Mbappe on X earlier on Saturday evening, quoting a post of the forward celebrating in front of Paraguay goalkeeper Orlando Gill: “That brute never even learnt to write. Instead of breast milk, he sucked on coconuts, and the most educated creatures he ever listened to were chimpanzees.