In 2013, journalist Joe Studwell published the book How Asia works, an explanation of how Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan – and, in part, China – had become rich countries. Studwell's book became canonical reading for understanding the “Asian recipe.” An avid reader of the book was Bill Gates, who met with Studwell and asked him what he thought about Africa's development. Studwell told him he knew nothing about that continent. Shortly thereafter, the governments of Ethiopia and Rwanda invited him to meet and ask him questions about how to apply the Asian recipe to their countries. Studwell would end up dedicating the following years of his career to researching Africa's development. A few months ago, he published How Africa works, in which he asks whether African economies can become prosperous countries like Japan or Korea. Studwell’s “Asian recipe” consists of three steps, which were repeated in all developed East Asian economies. First, land reform: land does not belong to landlords or the state, but is redistributed at the family level. Curiously, this policy was implemented in East Asia by anti-communist – but pragmatic – governments with the support of the United States. Second, promotion of manufacturing: the state supports new industries, but on the condition that they are successful in exporting abroad. This is how multinationals like Hyundai, Samsung, or TSMC were born. Finally, in the Asian model, the state has strong control over the financial system, imposing capital controls, and directing investment towards the small-scale agriculture and manufacturing sector. All these steps were taken by strong governments with leadership that had economic development as a strategic objective.In How Africa works, Studwell explains that the main obstacle Africa has had for development has not been political, but demographic. Africa has only now reached the population density that Asia had in the fifties. A low population density generates few markets and demand, expensive labor, and little return on investment in infrastructure. Africa, moreover, suffered a colonial model with little investment and especially extractive. When African countries gained independence, they had almost no experience in politics at a national level.However, Africa, since then, has improved and has several success stories, which in part have applied steps from the Asian recipe. Botswana and Mauritius are the most pioneering examples. The most recent are Ethiopia – its leader, Meles Zenawi, was a scholar of the Asian model – and Rwanda – where the case of Singapore is the example to follow –. All these cases have been successful, in large part, thanks to the fact that their governments opted for “pro-development coalitions” where various ethnic groups agreed to prioritize the economy. Studwell views Africa's future optimistically in general: the agriculture sector is the main driver of growth and successful industrial initiatives are beginning to emerge, largely thanks to the private sector. The author believes that Africa will cease to be the "failed continent" to resemble Asia more, where political decisions will create both success and failure stories.

Journalist Xavier Aldekoa (Barcelona, 1981) was hiding with 4,000 other people in a church in Buca, a small town in the Central African Republic. They were trying to protect themselves from the civil war. The forest around the church was full of corpses, and Aldekoa was trying to interview one of the hiding teenagers. The background noise from the church made it difficult to have an intelligible conversation, so they went outside. Less than 50 meters away, there were some people who needed some fresh air after days without seeing the blue sky. It was a relatively safe place compared to the danger beyond. But that safety quickly vanished.

The search for money by Joan Laporta's board has led Barça to close a sponsorship agreement with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one of the most corrupt countries in the world (ranked 163 out of 180 by Transparency International). It also suffers from extreme lack of water and food in some areas; has serious infrastructure deficiencies and is experiencing a period of insecurity due to the territorial advance of the M23, a predominantly Tutsi rebel military group. Because of all this, activists, journalists and other members of Congolese civil society express their rejection of their government's agreement to allocate more than 40 million euros to sponsor Barça's training shirt for four seasons with the slogan "DR Congo – Heart of Africa (Congo, Heart of Africa). The alliance is official as of this Wednesday.

Gaël Faye (Bujumbura, 1992) arrives late from a talk at the French Lycée in Barcelona because the students couldn't stop asking him questions about his two novels, A small country (2016; Empúries/Salamandra, 2018; trans. Mercè Ubach) and The jacaranda (2024; Salamandra, 2025; trans. Lydia Vázquez) More than two million copies of its debut were sold in the forty languages in which it can be read. of the genocide of Tutsis by Hutus in Rwanda. The jacaranda, who received the Renaudot Prize, starts again in 1994 to approach another young man, Milan: despite having grown up in Versailles, he becomes increasingly interested in Rwanda, the country his mother had to flee.

"I am no longer in Goma since my employment. I am ready to spend some time away from my family and loved ones," explains Steward Muhindo, a Congolese researcher, to ARA. The troops of the M23, the guerrilla group that has been operating in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2012, They occupied Goma at the end of JanuaryThis is a key moment in their latest campaign against the Congolese government, which has been underway since March 2022 and has allowed them to consolidate their dominance of territories rich in gold, coltan and other natural resources.