March 05
Africa: Drought Hits Southern Africa's Farmers, Putting Key Maize Supplies At Risk - How to Blunt the Impact
South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe have recently published reports indicating a potential decline in grain harvest because of intense El Niño-induced dryness. These… Read more »
February 28
Africa: Understanding How the Brain Works Can Transform How School Students Learn Maths
School mathematics teaching is stuck in the past. An adult revisiting the school that they attended as a child would see only superficial changes from what they experienced… Read more »
March 01
Africa: Measles Is One of the Deadliest and Most Contagious Infectious Diseases - and One of the Most Easily Preventable
"You don't count your children until the measles has passed." Dr. Samuel Katz, one of the pioneers of the first measles vaccine in the late 1950s to early 1960s, regularly heard… Read more »
Africa: Covid-19 Rapid Tests Still Work Against New Variants - Researchers Keep 'Testing the Tests,' and They Pass
By September 2020, just six months after COVID-19 triggered shutdowns across the U.S., it was clear that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, had mutated from its original… Read more »
February 28
Africa: Why Developing Countries Must Unite to Protect the WTO's Dispute Settlement System
The World Trade Organisation's dispute settlement mechanism has, for decades, provided stability and predictability to the resolution of disputes between member countries. As… Read more »
Africa: Alarming Africa-Wide Report Predicts 30% Drop in Crop Revenue, 50 Million Without Water
African countries will suffer significant economic loss after 2050 if global warming is not limited to below 2°C, a new study by the Center for Global Development has found. Read more »
February 23
Africa: Early Covid-19 Research Is Riddled With Poor Methods and Low-Quality Results - a Problem for Science the Pandemic Worsened but Didn't Create
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers flooded journals with studies about the then-novel coronavirus. Many publications streamlined the peer-review process for COVID-19… Read more »
February 21
Africa: Outrage Culture Is a Big, Toxic Problem. Why Do We Take Part? and How Can We Stop?
"Outrage culture" is pervasive in the digital age. It refers to our collective tendency to react, often with intense negativity, to developments around us. Read more »
February 28
Africa: Mounting Research Shows That Covid-19 Leaves Its Mark On the Brain, Including With Significant Drops in IQ Scores
From the very early days of the pandemic, brain fog emerged as a significant health condition that many experience after COVID-19. Read more »
February 27
Africa: Africa Needs China for Its Digital Development - but At What Price?
Digital technologies have many potential benefits for people in African countries. They can support the delivery of healthcare services, promote access to education and lifelong… Read more »
February 22
Africa: Expert Shares 5 Ways Africa's Coastal Residents Predict Floods
In the Lapai Gwari community of Niger state, north central Nigeria, elders predict the weather by observing a large stone in the Chachanga River. The LapanGwagwan stone serves as a… Read more »
Africa: Learning in Two Languages - Lessons From Francophone Africa On What Works Best
Children living in multilingual communities often learn in a language at school that does not match the language they speak at home. This mismatch makes it challenging for them to… Read more »
Africa: Africa's Debt Crisis Needs a Bold New Approach - Expert
It hasn't been easy for African states to finance their developmental and environmental policy objectives over the past few years. Read more »
February 21
Africa: 80 Percent of Premature Baby Deaths Happen in Poorer Countries. Five Simple Measures That Can Help Save Them
Worldwide in 2020 a baby died every 40 seconds because of complications of prematurity. Preterm birth is the leading cause of death among children under 5 years old. Read more »
February 13
Africa: Why Is Free Time Still So Elusive?
There have been massive gains in productivity over the past century. Read more »
February 21
Africa: Three Countries Leaving Ecowas Could Face Migration Hurdles
For Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, a recent decision to withdraw from the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) has thrown up questions about how they will navigate… Read more »
February 13
Africa: 'Analog Uncanny' - How This Weird and Experimental Side of Tiktok Is Forging the Future of Horror
Director Kyle Edward Ball's feature film debut, Skinamarink, achieved unexpected commercial success last year after going viral on TikTok. Read more »
February 16
Africa: A Brief History of the Diss Track - From the Roxanne Wars to Megan Thee Stallion
Released last month, Houston-born rapper Megan Thee Stallion's hit song Hiss is a textbook diss record. Fans and critics have suggested the track takes aim at multiple artists… Read more »
Africa: What's Behind the Astonishing Rise in LGBTQ+ Romance Literature?
A major transformation is underway in Romancelandia. Read more »
Africa: Ai Will Let Us Read 'Lost' Ancient Works in the Library At Herculaneum for the First Time
On 19 October 1752, a discovery was made 20 metres underneath the town of Resina, near Naples in Italy. Peasants digging wells in the area around Mount Vesuvius had struck marble… Read more »
February 20
Africa: Women in South Africa's Armed Struggle - New Book Records History At First Hand
South Africa's young democracy was a culmination of years of sweat, blood and revolution against the apartheid regime. In the early 1960s, after decades of "non-violence" as a… Read more »
February 14
Africa: Why Banning Gym Selfies Could Do Us All a Lot of Good
Taking selfies to document daily life is now a completely normalised activity across all ages and demographics. Read more »
February 16
Africa: Extraction of Raw Materials Could Rise 60 Percent By 2060 - and Making Mining 'Greener' Won't Stop the Damage
The United Nations' flagship Global Resources Outlook report is the portrait of a juggernaut. Due to be published later this month by the UN's International Resource Panel, it… Read more »
Africa: State-Owned Energy Companies Are Among the World's Most Polluting - Putting a Price On Carbon Could Help
Existing measures to cajole companies to decarbonise, with subsidies for renewable energy and carbon taxes, have failed to prevent global emissions rising. Does state ownership,… Read more »
February 19
East Africa: What Are Sabaki Languages? How People Formed Ethnic Groups Along the Coast of East Africa
A new book called Ethnicity, Identity and Conceptualizing Community in Indian Ocean East Africa tracks the history of the coastal communities of east Africa and how the Sabaki… Read more »
The Conversation Africa (Johannesburg)
The Conversation is an independent source of news and views, sourced from the academic and research community and delivered direct to the public. Our team of professional editors work with university, CSIRO and research institute experts to unlock their knowledge for use by the wider public. Access to independent, high-quality, authenticated, explanatory journalism underpins a functioning democracy. Our aim is to allow for better understanding of current affairs and complex issues. And hopefully allow for a better quality of public discourse and conversations.
Website: https://theconversation.com/africa
