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

What does it mean to “decolonise the mind”?

In this episode, we explore Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s influential book Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature — a work that continues to shape conversations about culture, identity, and creative expression across the continent.

Building on our previous episode on Axelle Kabou’s What if Africa Was Refusing to Develop?, we shift the lens inward. While Kabou interrogated Africa’s resistance to structural transformation, Ngũgĩ invites us to examine the deeper terrain of thought — the languages we use, the stories we tell, and the mental perspectives shaped by colonial education.

We revisit Ngũgĩ’s journey from writing in English to embracing Gikuyu as an act of artistic and political liberation, and reflect on why, despite his global stature, his work has not always been widely read within Africa itself.

Tune in as we unpack the four pillars of Decolonising the Mind, explore the politics of language in theatre, fiction, and everyday life, and consider why these questions remain urgently relevant today.

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00:00 Intro

01:23 Book Intro and background

03:17 The Author

08:05 The main themes

08:46 The Language of African Literature 

22:56 The Language of African Theatre 

30:58 The Quest for Relevance

37:55 Outro

What if Africa is refusing to develop?
This unsettling question lies at the heart of Axelle Kabou’s groundbreaking 1991 book, written originally in French and never translated into English — perhaps because of how provocative it remains.

In Et si l’Afrique refusait le développement?, the Cameroonian author challenges the comforting narratives of victimhood and dependency, urging Africans — especially the elites — to take full ownership of their continent’s destiny.

In this episode, we unpack Kabou’s bold ideas, her critique of postcolonial stagnation, and the deeper question of what true self-determined progress might look like for Africa.

Tune in now to explore the nuances and legacy of What if Africa is refusing to develop?

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00:00 Intro

01:25 Book Intro and background

04:38 The Author

09:13 The main themes

13:34 So why is Africa underdeveloped according to AK?

24:25 The signs of the refusal of development

40:30 The Promise of a Decomplexed Africa… Deferred

51:53 Outro

In this episode, we turn our gaze to one of Africa’s most powerful literary voices, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and her book Dream Count.

This moving work follows four African women — Chia, Omelogor, Zikora, and Kadiatou — each navigating love, ambition, migration, and the harsh weight of injustice. Their stories intertwine into a tapestry of sisterhood, solidarity, and survival.

Adichie herself has said: “Women are socialized with the aim of rivaling and hating one another. That is why, when their relationships are sincere and deep, they resemble acts of courage, of resistance. Revolutionary acts.”

Join us as we explore these revolutionary acts of friendship, and the dreams that sustain — and sometimes betray — the women who carry them.

Here are the resources mentioned in the episode:

• Chimamanda's TED talk: The danger of a single story
• The story of Chimamanda's name: interview
• The essay about Diallo's case: DSK Vs. The Maid: Who Would the Jury Have Believed?

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[Spoiler Alert: This content contains major plot details from the book]

00:00 Intro

01:26 Book Intro and synopsis

08:30 The Author

11:55 Background & motivation for writing the book

18:16 The main themes

20:58 The “African woman’s voice”

22:05 Sisterhood

23:46 Love and partnership

26:30 Motherhood

37:11 Physical pain that women endure and that is ‘taken for granted’

42:45 Sexual violence and justice for women

48:39 To be an African

51:51 Musings around the question of slavery

56:40 Outro

In this episode we take you through Dreams of Trespass - Tales of a Harem Girlhood by the Moroccan author Fatima Mernissi. The book is a memoir that whispers, questions, and gently dismantles the walls — both visible and invisible — that shape identity, womanhood, and belonging.

Find us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/threads_of_ifriqiya

And TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@threadsofifriqiya

You can find the New York Times article on Fatima Mernissi here: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/10/world/middleeast/fatema-mernissi-a-founder-of-islamic-feminism-dies-at-75.html#:~:text=Fatema%20Mernissi%2C%20a%20Moroccan%20sociologist,her%20literary%20agent%2C%20Edite%20Kroll.

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00:00 Intro

01:44 Book Intro and synopsis

05:53 The Author

10:24 Background and title

11:56 The main themes

18:18 What is a harem ?

29:17 Feminist momentum

47:17 Education

55:44 On identity and cultural blending in Morocco

01:06:35 Outro

In this episode we dive into Terre Ceinte, the powerful novel by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr—an exploration of violence, freedom, and resistance in the face of extremism, an extremism too often, rightly or wrongly, associated with Islam.

If you want to dive deeper into the haunting world of Terre Ceinte, we invite you to check this reading session of the book by RFI (in French) https://youtu.be/yAqKKemM8U0?si=9jTsSl-RD3qmefOo

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[Spoiler Alert: This content contains major plot details from the book]

00:00 Intro

03:10 The author, the title, and the meaning of Kalep

15:42 The main themes

18:21 Writing as a tool for liberation

26:13 The nature of human society

29:31 The maternal figures

36:16 Outro