Africa’s make-or-break moment 25 Jan 2021 Foresight: Leading African economist Carlos Lopes was behind the push for Africa to become a free trade area, which came into effect on 1 January In September 2012, Carlos Lopes flew to South Africa to meet Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the veteran Cabinet minister who was about to start her new job in Addis Ababa as chair of the African Union Commission. Lopes, an economist from Guinea-Bissau, was also based in the Ethiopian capital — he had just been appointed as director of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. At the time, the AU was divided and demoralised, at perhaps its lowest ebb since its founding in 2002. South Africa’s aggressive push to install Dlamini-Zuma in the top job had exacerbated internal tensions. To prove that she was not just a political appointee, there to do South Africa’s bidding, Dlamini-Zuma needed a win — and Lopes had a suggestion.