Essay

Africa Is Now Calling the Shots

Governments, civil society, and the private sector are reimagining development away from external interventions. September 8, 2025, 12:04 AM Comment icon View Comments ( )

Two women work at a sewing machine in a booth filled with patterned fabrics. A man is seen working on fabric at a table on the left.

The Fall 2025 cover of Foreign Policy magazine with an illustration of a tattered flag with a globe waving from a makeshift stick flagpole/

This article appears in the Fall 2025 print issue: The End of Development. Read more from the issue .

This article appears in the Fall 2025 issue of Foreign Policy . Subscribe now to read the full issue and support our journalism.

It has been 140 years since imperialist powers gathered in Ber

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