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David Pilling

Africa Editor

David Pilling is the Africa editor and a columnist at the Financial Times. He covers business, politics and development on the continent and writes a regular column on topics from Africa. Before that he was the Asia editor and assistant editor. Previous roles include Tokyo bureau chief, pharmaceuticals correspondent, deputy features editor and correspondent in Buenos Aires and Santiago.

He is the author of two books - The Growth Delusion (2018), shortlisted for the Orwell Prize, and the highly acclaimed Bending Adversity: Japan and the Art of Survival (2016).

He is a regular moderator and speaker both for the FT and for organisations including the World Bank, OECD and ADB. In 2023 he briefed a G7 meeting in Kamakura, Japan on the ideas behind his book, The Growth Delusion.

Email David Pilling @davidpilling  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)
  • Thursday, 29 May, 2025
    The Big Read
    Is South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa running out of time?

    He may have survived a bruising encounter with Donald Trump, but the veteran ANC politician is facing forbidding challenges at home and abroad

    Montage image of Ramaphosa, ANC and EFF activists
  • Thursday, 22 May, 2025
    British Indian Ocean Territory
    UK to pay £101mn a year under deal to hand over Chagos Islands to Mauritius

    British government says accord will guarantee future of joint military base with US

  • Thursday, 22 May, 2025
    OutlookCape Town
    Cape Town fights off a baboon invasion

    Aggressive tactics used to scare off the animals have set humans against simians and neighbour against neighbour

    Baboon looking through the windshield Western Cape near Cape Town
  • Wednesday, 14 May, 2025
    Special ReportAfrica’s Fastest-Growing Companies
    The ranking: Africa's Fastest-Growing Companies 2025

    South Africa and Nigeria dominate the list of 130 businesses hinting at the difficulties entrepreneurs from smaller countries face in building a continental presence

    Aerial view of Cape Town, South Africa, with Table Mountain in the background and the city’s stadium and harbor in the foreground
  • Monday, 12 May, 2025
    US politics & policy
    White South Africans arrive in US under Trump refugee scheme

    President offered asylum to Afrikaners he says have faced violence and discrimination since end of apartheid

    White South Africans supporting US President Donald Trump
  • Monday, 12 May, 2025
    The Economics Show podcast28 min listen
    Bill Gates: how international development can survive the Trump presidency

    The former Microsoft CEO has $200bn to give away. Will the US help him?

  • Thursday, 8 May, 2025
    The Big Read
    Bill Gates is giving away $200bn. Can his plans survive in the Trump era?

    The philanthropist intends to spend his fortune over the next 20 years. But government budget cuts threaten his ambitions in global health

    Montage image of Bill Gates, Donald Trump and Elon Musk
  • Thursday, 8 May, 2025
    InterviewGates Foundation
    Bill Gates accuses Elon Musk of ‘killing’ children with USAID cuts

    Billionaire reopens feud with Tesla chief as he unveils plan to spend $200bn on philanthropy and close foundation in 2045

    Bill Gates
  • Saturday, 19 April, 2025
    Travel
    Deep into the Sahara, on a Mauritanian adventure

    As travel warnings ease and flights increase, David Pilling joins a tour operator’s ‘recce’, travelling from the coast into the desert to find dune seas, ancient villages and remote oases

    Six people on a ridge looking out across a vast sandy expanse with mountain ranges on either side
  • Friday, 18 April, 2025
    Climate change
    US climate philanthropies fear Trump blow from loss of tax-free status

    Chilling effect on charitable organisations comes as need for funding rises amid Trump cuts

  • Tuesday, 15 April, 2025
    Sudan
    Sudan paramilitaries massacre hundreds of refugees in Darfur

    Activists warn of unfolding genocide as UK and others host peace conference in London

    People who fled a camp for the internally displaced after it fell under RSF control queue for food rations near the town of Tawila in war-torn Sudan’s western Darfur region
  • Sunday, 6 April, 2025
    African economy
    ‘Land grabs’ in Africa replaced by ‘carbon grabs’, says bank chief

    AfDB president Akinwumi Adesina says foreign companies paying derisory prices for carbon sequestration

    Akinwumi Adesina,
  • Friday, 4 April, 2025
    South African economy
    South Africa minister says US trade deal ‘nullified’ by Trump tariffs

    Parks Tau backs pivot to China in face of high levies from Donald Trump administration

    Parks Tau
  • Thursday, 3 April, 2025
    News in-depthUS trade
    The world’s tiniest nations targeted in Trump’s trade war

    The ‘mountain kingdom’ of Lesotho joins Pacific island Nauru on list of countries hit with punishing US tariffs

    Montage of Donald Trump holding a ‘Foreign Trade Barriers’ report in front of a world map highlighting Africa, with Lesotho marked in red
  • Sunday, 30 March, 2025
    News in-depthUS foreign policy
    Autocrats behaving badly: Trump emboldens global strongmen

    From Turkey to Israel, leaders make the most of a world without US censure

    Composite image of Benjamin Netanyahu, Paul Kagame, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Donald Trump
  • Friday, 21 March, 2025
    Special ReportFuture of Water
    Mismanagement turns up pressure on South Africa’s water system

    Reservoirs may be full but poor maintenance, lack of investment and criminality are disrupting supplies

    A person collects water from an outdoor tap, filling a yellow bucket while a blue bucket sits below
  • Sunday, 16 March, 2025
    African politics
    Ethiopia fighting threatens return to civil and regional war

    Security concerns for Africa’s second most populous country and neighbouring Eritrea as fragile peace looks set to unravel

    Tigray People’s Liberation Front fighters arriving in the regional capital Mekelle
  • Friday, 14 March, 2025
    Israel-Hamas war
    US and Israel approach African countries to resettle Gazans

    Idea of displacing Palestinian population has been widely opposed, including by countries being approached

    A boy stands on a hill, looking over a large tent camp for displaced Palestinians
  • Tuesday, 4 March, 2025
    The Future of Aid
    Can international aid survive in a crumbling world order?

    As western governments dramatically scale back budgets, remaining funding is likely to be a more obvious tool of geopolitical interests

    FT montage of Donald Trump superimposed over pictures of protesters’ placards calling for the USAID agency to be saved
  • Friday, 28 February, 2025
    Lunch with the FT
    Political scientist Bjorn Lomborg: ‘You can’t spend on everything’

    The ‘sceptical environmentalist’ used cost-benefit analysis to argue against emissions cuts. Now he has turned his attention to overseas aid

    A middle-aged white man with floppy blonde hair sits in front of a picture window with docklands behind him. He is wearing a blue jumper
  • Thursday, 13 February, 2025
    South African politics
    South Africa has been blindsided by Donald Trump

    The US president’s attacks on the country might actually unite its people

    Cyril Ramaphosa, seen through ranks of uniformed soldiers, arrives at City Hall for the State of the Nation Address in Cape Town
  • Wednesday, 12 February, 2025
    South Africa
    South Africa vows to pursue Israel genocide case despite Trump pressure

    Foreign minister Ronald Lamola says there is ‘no chance’ country will drop case after US orders halt to aid

    South Africa’s then minister of justice Ronald Lamola and ambassador to the Netherlands Vusimuzi Madonsela at the International Court of Justice last year
  • Tuesday, 11 February, 2025
    Special ReportThe Future of Cities
    Thwarted ambition triggers dissent among Africa’s urban young

    Gap between education and opportunity is fostering generational frustration and protests as cities expand

    Commuters wait for buses in Nairobi’s Central Business District
  • Sunday, 9 February, 2025
    Namibia
    Namibia’s ‘founding father’ Sam Nujoma dies at 95

    Former guerrilla leader and president fought against apartheid and South African control

    Sam Nujoma
  • Saturday, 8 February, 2025
    ObituaryAga Khan
    The Aga Khan IV, spiritual leader and entrepreneur, 1936-2025

    An urbane but almost mythical figure who saw no contradiction between his life’s religious and secular aspects

    The Aga Khan pictured in west London in 2008
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