Weekly Roundup | April 12, 2026
Happy “Sunday,” y'all! This week, Dip wrote a piece responding to an article in The Economist about precolonial Africa's statelessness.
Continue reading for more, including urgent crowdfund requests, additional resources to dive deeper on this week's topics, and other stories that we missed. That's all for this week!
Some crowdfunds to contribute to
- Support a Community Centered Food Trailer
- Keep a Disabled Trans Woman Housed
- Housing Support for a Black Trans Person!
- HELP ME SURVIVE AND REBUILD MY FUTURE AGAIN
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The Dangers of "Inspiration"
Thinking through how to toe the line between appropriation and appreciation.
Keep precolonial Africa out your mouth, unless you’re gonna come correct
Dip discusses a recent Economist article and thinks through the implications of the Continent being seen as a “model” for elsewhere.
Chaos and Conviviality
Marginalia
Resources to dive deeper on the topics of the week.
- Africa needs to be seriously understood as a real constellation of places with real people, seen as critical to any movement for international liberation. It's good to start with Dipo Faloyin's Africa is not a Country, then dive into Tatah Mentan's The Open Veins of Africa. I'd also recommend keeping up with Around the Horne and This Week in Africa to get a survey of current events. To reiterate the point from the piece: dive deep, be rigorous, and build an understanding that goes beyond the stereotypes and headlines.
Other Stories Worth Knowing
News that we didn't focus on, and worthwhile angles that we missed.
- Almost Half of US Data Centers That Were Supposed to Open This Year Slated to Be Canceled or Delayed
- Investors press Amazon, Microsoft and Google on water, power use in US data centers
- Red States Are Quietly Making Lists for Tracking Trans People
- Prediction markets challenge tribal casinos’ hard-won place in US gambling
- The Download: AI's impact on jobs, and data centres in space
- Notes from Around the Horne for 04.08.2026
- I Wish I Didn’t Care About 'Marathon' Player Numbers, But I Do
- Damage Report
- Same Donors, Different Movements
- Trump: Fine, We’ll Blockade the Strait Too
- What does Trump’s EPA reversal of landmark climate change ruling mean for Illinois?
- My well went dry. Water can’t be an afterthought in San Antonio’s data center boom.
- The False Promises of Balochistan’s Critical Mineral
- ‘Reverse-gentrify the country’: how Black and Indigenous intentional communities are reclaiming land
- An Interview with Jafar Panahi
