Raw, naked and masculine

AFRICA: La speranza africana is based on interviews with African friends and travels in Egypt, Ethiopia and South Africa. Federico Rampini tells about violence and uncertainty, about murder and injustice, about corruption, inequality and poverty.

HOLBERG PRIZE WINNER: Achille Mbembe's books all revolve around how the people in post-colonial states are kept down and marginalized. But also about how democracy today does not work because threats, violence and murder keep people away from the public sphere, from debates, from being able to say what you think for fear of losing your job, being put in prison or killed.

AFRICA: Disruption opens up for the capitalists a new display of power and new income: People, society and nature are reduced to raw material. The author Achille Mbembe's horizon is always the widest possible – the cosmic, earth-historical and planetary. Africa, despite all harrowing problems, is being called forth as a vibrant world center that still has powers in reserve, a teeming wildlife and a wealth of cultures.

RECONSTRUCTION: This appendix gives the war's destruction of cities and towns in Ukraine and the need for reconstruction the most attention.