Welcome to Next Africa, a twice-weekly newsletter on where the continent stands now — and where it’s headed. Sign up here to have it delivered to your email.

As relations between most of Africa and the US sour over President Donald Trump’s trade war, other global powers are lining up to forge closer ties with the continent.

The ninth edition of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development starts in the Japanese city of Yokohama on Wednesday, with about 20 leaders including South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa and Angola’s João Lourenço attending. 

Japanese flags at the National Diet building in Tokyo. Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg

The gathering comes as the second-biggest Asian economy emerges from three decades of deflation and its traditionally risk-averse private sector looks to expand and diversify. With minimal Japanese foreign direct investments currently reaching Africa, there is huge scope for companies to explore new opportunities.

Meanwhile, the India-Africa business conference is due to take place in New Delhi later this month. That meeting aims to foster cooperation across a range of industries, with a  focus on oil and gas, technology and logistics.

China and Russia have previously hosted summits of their own to cement economic and diplomatic relations with Africa, while nations such as Turkey and the United Arab Emirates have embarked on concerted drives to increase their sway.  

With many African nations having lost their preferential access to US markets under Trump’s new tariff regime, which seeks to reshape the global order, it’s pivotal for governments to open up new export markets.   

In doing so, though, they will need to break the mold of Africa as merely a source of minerals and other raw materials, and a constant recipient of foreign aid.

Trump’s onslaught may provide an opportunity for the continent to make new friends and forge stronger and more reliable partnerships. — Ntando Thukwana

Key stories and opinion:
Japan Seeks to Grow Africa Investments to Ease Reliance on China
Trump Tariffs Seen Fostering New China-Global South Trade Order 
Flexing its Muscle, Turkey Is Spreading Its Influence in Africa 
The United Arab Emirates in Africa: Power, Influence and Conflict 
Russia Woos Africa With Free Grain, Fertilizer Research Funding

Thousands of Ivorians held renewed protests over the weekend to voice their opposition to Alassane Ouattara’s bid for a fourth term as president. The demonstrations were led by former leader Laurent Gbagbo. Ouattara, 83, announced plans this month to seek reelection in October, sparking fierce condemnation from Gbagbo and ex-Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam, who’ve both been disqualified from running. 

A protest in Abidjan on Aug. 9.  Photographer: Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images

Elon Musk’s SpaceX urged South Africa’s government to consider an alternative to Black ownership rules for telecommunication companies that want to operate in Africa’s largest economy. The firm asked the authorities to allow an equity-equivalent program as an alternative to the existing requirement that businesses in the ICT sector be 30% owned by Black shareholders. Such exemptions are already standard for a number of industries.

Demands for Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé to step down escalated after a former defense minister urged the military to prioritize the interests of the West African nation’s citizens. Gnassingbé has faced mounting opposition since his appointment in May as the head of the council of ministers, a new position created through a controversial constitutional change. He’s ruled since the 2005 death of his father, who seized power in a 1967 coup.

Faure Gnassingbé. Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

With an International Monetary Fund mission due to arrive in Senegal this week, investors are watching to see whether the nation will edge closer to securing new funding needed to stabilize its finances. A review ordered by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye last year found the previous government hid $7 billion of borrowing. The revelation led the IMF to suspend a $1.8 billion loan, while S&P Global Ratings downgraded the country’s credit rating further into junk.

A Tanzanian court ordered a media blackout during the next phase of opposition leader Tundu Lissu’s treason trial after prosecutors asked to conceal witnesses’ identities. A magistrate in the commercial hub, Dar es Salaam, ordered that live streaming and reporting of court proceedings be halted. The leader of the Chadema party has been detained at a maximum-security prison since being charged with treason in April. He could be sentenced to death if convicted. 

Tundu Lissu in court in Dar es Salaam on May 19. Photographer: Ericky Boniphace/AFP/Getty Images

Kenya aims to raise funding from citizens living abroad and initially plans to sell a so-called diaspora bond of as much as $500 million. The East African nation is in talks with a World Bank unit on how to structure the security, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi said in an interview. Meanwhile, sources say the Kenyan government will buy back as much as $3.5 billion of domestic debt before it matures and sell longer-dated securities.

Thank you for your responses to our weekly Next Africa Quiz and congratulations to Tovia Kohn who was first to identify Mali as the African nation that seized a gold complex belonging to Barrick Mining, prompting the firm to post a $1 billion charge.

The Equal Earth projection retains the relative sizes of land masses.

The African Union has thrown its weight behind a campaign to adopt a world map that reflects the continent’s relative size more accurately than the one currently adorning most geography-class walls. The so-called Mercator projection, in use since the 16th century, makes Africa look comparatively small as it inflates the size of territory further away from the equator. Advocacy groups are promoting use of the Equal Earth map, a better representation of land-mass areas. It’s impossible to perfectly represent a sphere on a flat surface and the alternate will still distort the continents’ shapes.

Thanks for reading. We’ll be back in your inbox with the next edition on Friday. Send any feedback to mcohen21@bloomberg.net