In this episode, we explore Jacaranda, a novel by Gaël Faye, a Rwandan-French writer and musician whose work moves between memory, exile, and inheritance.

Set between France and Rwanda, the novel follows Milan, a young man born in Europe yet pulled persistently toward a history he was never fully told. From televised images of the 1994 genocide to the open-air Gacaca courts, from family silences to generational transmission, Jacaranda asks what it means to grow up in the shadow of a past you did not live, but still carry.

Structured around three threads - African parenting, the search for purpose, and the enduring memory of the genocide - this episode is less a plot summary than a reflection on silence, identity, and the weight of history across generations.

As in many of our previous conversations on Africa’s story, this reading reminds us that memory does not disappear with time. It evolves, circulates, and shapes lives in quiet but decisive ways.

Tune in as we reflect on Jacaranda, and ask: when comfort is possible, why do some still choose the questions?

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00:00 Intro

01:31 Book Intro and Synopsis

07:49 The Author

13:34 African Parenting

33:49 The Search for Purpose

40:07 The Genocide

In this episode, we explore Without Prejudice, a memoir by Tidjane Thiam, one of the most influential African figures in global finance, whose life has unfolded at the crossroads of power, race, ambition, and belonging.

From a rare, privileged, yet at times deeply challenging childhood in post-independence Africa, to elite education in France, to the highest executive roles in global finance, and finally to a contested entry into politics, Thiam reflects on risk, responsibility, and the invisible barriers that persist even at the very top.

Structured around three threads - a golden childhood, a brilliant career, and a rocky start in politics - this episode is less a celebration of success than a meditation on its cost: racism, exile, sacrifice, and the limits of meritocracy.

This reading also echoes themes we’ve explored in earlier episodes on Africa’s development - a reminder that excellence emerges from Africa, in all its complexity.

🎧 Tune in as we reflect on Without Prejudice, and ask what it truly means to rise, and what it means to choose what you rise for.

The FT article we talked about: ⁠https://www.ft.com/content/d3365c78-e93e-44eb-9c62-d43189e70bda⁠

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00:00 Intro

01:30 Book Intro and background

12:31 The Author

14:03 The Rare African Golden Childhood

42:19 A Brilliant Career

01:29:51 Rocky Start in Politics

01:40:48 Outro

What does it mean to reject (or defend) democracy in Africa?

In this episode, we explore Africa Against Democracy: Myths, Denial and Peril, a recent and provocative essay by Senegalese journalist (now Writer), Ousmane Ndiaye.

Unlike the well-established works we’ve discussed so far, this is a debut book - tentative in places, urgent in others - that invites reflection. Structured around three central assertions (myths, denial, and peril) Ndiaye examines how democracy is imagined, dismissed, or placed at risk across the continent.In this episode, we built on our earlier conversations around Axelle Kabou’s What if Africa Was Refusing to Develop? and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Decolonising the Mind, to extend the thread toward contemporary political debates unfolding in real time in West Africa. An essay. A moment. A set of questions that feel increasingly difficult to postpone.

🎧 Tune in as we unpack Ndiaye’s arguments and reflect on why democracy in Africa remains such a contested, yet urgent, terrain today.

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00:00 Intro

01:40 Book Intro and background

07:12 The Author

08:29 The myths surrounding democracy in Africa

26:20 The denial of democracy

35:41 The peril: imminent danger for Africa

42:00 Outro