The Hydropolitics of Africa

"The only matter that could take Egypt to war again is water" A s once famously said by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1979. Blood will be flowing in the Nile River, not water if conflicts surrounding this precious resource are not resolved peacefully, as put melancholically by Wiebe ( 2001 ). Almost everybody has heard of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) that began construction in 2011 and was recently completed in July 2020, yet not many realise that this simple dam is the source of immense conflict. The Nile River has simultaneously been a source of life and conflict for decades, and with the current escalating degradation of the river, water scarcity concerns have been exacerbated within the basin. "Hail to thee, O Nile! Who manifests thyself over this land, and comes to give life to Egypt!" ( Ancient Egyptian Hymn celebrating the Nile ) The Nile river and Egypt can be considered almost synonymous terms, having prospered greatly from the river and i...

A frica - the desolate, barren wasteland rifled with poverty and strange cultures. Works on Africa seem to be one giant conundrum when it comes to present discourses. Western outputs have portrayed the African continent as a single entity, one that is stuck in an eternal cycle of poverty and misfortune. Others write about Africa through the lens of its unique cultures, mysterious-looking peoples and peculiar foods. Whatever you write about Africa, make sure that you depict the continent as one that is “to be pitied, worshipped or dominated” ( Wainaina, 2019 ). One could say that this is an extreme view and yet works like these persist throughout the literature on Africa.  Maybe we should stop this. And maybe we should stop referring to everything in Africa as ‘Africa’. It’s about time we deconstruct these pre-generated imaginaries of ‘Africa’ and peer deeper into this not-so-special-it-should-be-romanticised continent. Just like a surgical knife - precision is key. The closer we lo...