Introducing Penkelemesi by Chris O. Ogunmodede
Locating the story behind the story of African narratives
Welcome, friends! Thanks for reading the first edition of Penkelemesi, a newsletter dedicated to analysis of African politics, international affairs, political economy, culture and much more. Much of what you read here can be found in the “About” section but I’m offering an abridged version here for the purpose of introducing this publication.
What is Penkelemesi about?
In one word, Africa.
Its people, their lives, circumstances and everything in between.
The publication will explore the broader economic, political, social and cultural undercurrents that shape the world in which Africans find themselves. Penkelemesi aims to move beyond superficial, uninformed and monochromatic framings of Africa and present better ways to think about the continent, its bright spots, the myriad challenges it faces and the potential solutions to them.
There are many sources from where one can get headlines and a quick take on the latest conflict, national election or where the next military coup in Africa has taken place, and there is no inherent harm in paying attention to such stories. But in order to gain a better understanding of events, developments and trends across such a vast continent of approximately 1.4 billion people, we need to scratch beneath the surface; cast a wider net; think systematically; ask better, more meaningful questions and update our priors.
Put simply, my main task with this newsletter is to go after the story behind the story of events across the continent.
There will be intermittent musings on matters that are to the side of politics, international affairs, political economy and security but are nonetheless relevant and noteworthy, whether it’s culture, sports, technology, religion or any other topic that captures the attention of Africans and deserves deep consideration. Crucially, I will aim to make my posts (relatively) short and sweet. There will be long posts from time to time but in a world where we are all drowning in a flood of information, my commentary will try to maximize the economy of word and time.
If you are seeking broad-minded storytelling and commentary about Africa that is forthright and nuanced and avoids the exoticized and dehumanizing frameworks that are commonplace in international commentary on Africa, you’ve come to the right place.
Who are you?
My name is Chris Ògúnmọ́dẹdé. Some of you might be familiar with me from my time at World Politics Review, where I worked for two years as an editor, writer and author of the weekly newsletter Africa Watch. Others might know me from conferences, my public commentary and media appearances on a range of African and international media, while some folks might have become familiar with me from Twitter.
I am a scholar-practitioner of politics, diplomacy and international development with a focus on Africa. I have spent most of my professional career working in three continents with and for governments, multilateral institutions, think-tanks and non-profit organizations, with the occasional stint in the private sector.
The majority of that experience left me even more disillusioned with the so-called liberal international order, especially its treatment of Africa. The mainstream international media and scholarly discourse on Africa isn’t much better, has scarcely improved in my lifetime and does not reflect my own knowledge, interpretation and experience of the continent.
I have mostly stepped away from the world of diplomacy and made a foray into public commentary for a broader audience. Today, I write articles for newspapers and magazines, consult for organizations, make media appearances and speak at academic and professional conferences, lectures and seminars. I have also now launched this publication as part of what I anticipate will be a continuous effort at public engagement on my part.
Why did you start this newsletter?
The publication was borne of my observation that there is a dearth of scholarship and journalism about Africa relative to the continent’s vast size, large population and centrality to the history and future of the modern world.
There is a tiny volume of what I consider to be good-quality coverage and analysis of African affairs that is accessible and readily available to lay readers. Few Africans get to shape the stories about the continent that the world consumes. Even fewer mainstream international commentators and outlets cover Africa with the appropriate depth, rigor and even-handedness.
The overwhelming majority of international journalism, research and analysis about Africa is NOT produced by Africans. This means that nearly everything about the continent and its people is defined by outsiders whose work is blinkered by a range of biases that are accepted as objective knowledge even by many Africans.
When Africans are the focus of global discourse, they are spoken for and about far more than they are spoken to. Foreign observers generally struggle to understand Africa on its own terms. Instead, the continent and its people are conceived of mainly as a point of comparison with others or as appendages to the narratives, interests and machinations of foreign actors. Africans are rarely thought of as possessing the full range of human complexity as their peers elsewhere in the world, but as exotic, simple-minded creatures whose peculiarities are uniquely pathological.
Penkelemesi aims to be a departure from those conventions. Instead, I seek to use this space to create and share valuable knowledge and commentary about Africa, prioritizing underexplored, humanizing insights by Africans. I will write from an Africa-centered point of view that places the continent and its people at the heart of discourses about them.
The publication will lean considerably on my fairly unusual perspective: an African who has spent a significant portion of his career in international affairs and foreign policy circles where people with my biography, life experiences and beliefs were rare. Most of that experience made me even more profoundly critical of the international system than I was, and disdainful of the conventional wisdom that typifies discourse on Africa.
My views do not always find a home in most international discourse as they generally go against the grain of what is regarded as the settled knowledge about Africa. But my time at World Politics Review, including the feedback about my work that I received regularly, convinced me that there is a market for the perspectives I bring. And so here we are.
What does Penkelemesi mean and why did you choose it as the title of your Substack?
The publication takes its name from an adulteration of the phrase “peculiar mess” as uttered by Adegoke Adelabu, a prominent Nigerian politician, orator and anti-colonial activist. Adelabu was said to have used the phrase in a set of public remarks, after which some members of his audience—many of whom did not speak or understand English—registered his words as “penkelemesi” using Yorùbá language phonetics. The word stuck and came to be associated with Adelabu, who died two years before Nigeria gained formal independence from the United Kingdom in 1960.
Adelabu is one of the many African figures who have shaped my political philosophy. As such, I considered Penkelemesi to be a suitable title for my newsletter, as a tongue-in-cheek homage to an intellectual influence and because “peculiar mess” is a fairly apt description of much of Africa’s circumstances particularly on issues like poverty reduction, industrialization and the climate emergency.
Should I subscribe to Penkelemesi?
You should. It would make me very happy. But more importantly, it would make you smarter about events and developments on a dynamic, consequential but undercovered part of the world.
There are many people who want to be better informed about Africa beyond what is published in outlets like The New York Times or The Economist. Over the years, few things have been more fulfilling to me than when someone reaches out to commend a piece of my written work or social media post from which they learned something they had never come across or seen articulated in a particular way. This gets to the heart of why I do what I do, and if I can guide even one person toward better ways of thinking about and engaging with Africa then my mission has been successful.
For now, posts in this publication will be entirely available for free to all readers. I only ask for a small token of support if you value the content of this journal and would like to help keep it going. One reason I started this publication is my desire to make its content—analysis of African politics, international affairs and political economy—as accessible and available to lay readers, especially the many Africans and/or young students who cannot afford to pay for the expensive textbooks and paywalled publications that proliferate the international academic and media ecosystem. I would like to keep things that way for the time being, and would greatly appreciate and welcome all gestures of financial support.
I would also love for this publication to expand over time to include podcasts, Q&As with smart, interesting folks; and regular AMA series with me. I am currently unable to commit at this time to any guarantees regarding the frequency with which I shall publish, as I spend considerable time on the road and have offline commitments just like everyone else. But I aim to publish as frequently as is possible. I am fully committed to this enterprise, as it offers space for the kind of autonomy and spontaneity that is sometimes missing from my other published work.
I hope you find this publication to be worth your time and that you can use it to make sense of events and developments in Africa. Happy reading, and don’t forget to share this publication widely!