When people speak about narrative power, they tend to think of storytelling in its most visible forms: film, literature, media, advertising, and the other cultural outputs through which societies represent themselves and are represented by others. They rarely think about spreadsheets. Yet in the modern world, spreadsheets carry stories as

Narratives do not persist by accident. If a particular framing of a continent, economy, or institution remains dominant for decades, it is rarely because it has simply gone unnoticed or unchallenged. It persists because it serves functions, and often because it serves interests. Understanding which functions and whose interests is

The term "emerging markets" sounds optimistic. It implies momentum, growth, and eventual arrival. It suggests that a group of countries are in transition, not yet recognised as mature economies but moving steadily toward that classification. The optimism is part of its power. But embedded within the label is

Development frameworks are rarely introduced as stories. They arrive as toolkits, strategic pillars, measurable indicators, benchmarking models, and reform templates. They are described as neutral instruments designed to accelerate progress and ensure accountability. The neutrality is the first thing worth examining, because no framework is neutral. Every framework encodes assumptions

Narratives do not remain where they are authored. They travel, and the distance they travel is rarely accidental. It follows the routes of institutional authority, financial dependency, and cultural prestige that were themselves constructed over time and for specific purposes. Through international media, academic institutions, financial markets, development agencies, diplomatic

Aid did not begin as infrastructure. It began as language, and like all language used consistently enough across powerful enough institutions, it eventually built something solid. In the decades following decolonisation, international development discourse framed large parts of Africa as newly independent but institutionally fragile. The language used to describe