April 27, 2023
Africa: Slavery's Historical Link to Marriage Is Still At Play in Some African Societies
Governments and religious institutions regulate marriage. Such regulations are heavily laden with specific moral ideas and cultural taboos. There are heated debates around what… Read more »
April 26, 2023
Africa: Africa's Oceans Are Being Protected to Serve the Interests of Big Foreign Corporates
Africa's valuable ocean resources have drawn the interest of foreign nations, particularly those in the West and Asia. Read more »
April 25, 2023
Africa: African Vaccines - Local Manufacturers Are Struggling to Access the Market - What Must Change
Two recent developments in South Africa have underscored the opportunities - and challenges - facing vaccine production on the continent. Read more »
April 24, 2023
Africa: The Dirty Truth About Your Phone - And Why You Need to Stop Scrolling in the Bathroom
We carry them everywhere, take them to bed, to the bathroom and for many people they're the first thing they see in the morning - more than 90% of the world owns or uses a mobile… Read more »
April 19, 2023
Africa: Generative AI - 5 Essential Reads About the New Era of Creativity, Job Anxiety, Misinformation, Bias and Plagiarism
The light and dark sides of AI have been in the public spotlight for many years. Think facial recognition, algorithms making loan and sentencing recommendations, and medical image… Read more »
April 24, 2023
Africa: Hope Is On the Horizon for a Malaria-Free Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa is disproportionally affected by malaria. The region accounts for 95% of the world's malaria cases. The disease kills an African child every 60 seconds. Read more »
April 19, 2023
Africa: Illegal Logging in Africa Is a Threat to Security
African countries are estimated to lose US$17 billion each year to illegal logging. High-value timber species are in global demand. Read more »
April 18, 2023
Africa: Diseases Gave Us the Rise of Christianity, the End of the Aztecs and Public Sanitation. How Might Future Plagues Change Human History?
"Every once in a while a book lands on your desk that changes the way you perceive the world you live in, a book that fundamentally challenges your understanding of human history."… Read more »
April 11, 2023
Africa: Great Apes Like to Spin Themselves Dizzy, a Lot Like Children Do, Research Shows
Children love to spin. Whether it is by whirling around on their feet, whipping around on a tyre swing, or tumbling down a grassy hill, they revel in the drunken effects of… Read more »
April 17, 2023
Africa: We Make Thousands of Unconscious Decisions Every Day. Here's How Your Brain Copes With That
Do you remember learning to drive a car? You probably fumbled around for the controls, checked every mirror multiple times, made sure your foot was on the brake pedal, then… Read more »
April 18, 2023
Africa: Feeding Africa - How Small-Scale Irrigation Can Help Farmers to Change the Game
Unlike large-acreage government irrigation schemes, small-scale irrigation is typically farmer led. Farmers decide what technologies to use to extract water, be it manual lifting… Read more »
April 13, 2023
Africa: New Research Forces a Rethink of Ape Evolution
Human evolution is tightly connected to the environment and landscape of Africa, where our ancestors first emerged. Read more »
April 18, 2023
Africa: Europe Outsourcing Asylum to African Countries Is a Terrible Idea - There Are Alternatives
For 40 years, western governments have entertained ideas of outsourcing asylum processing and refugee hosting to the global south. It is not a new idea. And neither are the… Read more »
April 13, 2023
Africa: Drawing Pictures Is Great for Children's Development - Here's How Parents Can Help
When the weather's bad and there's no prospect of a trip to the park, we might well reach for crayons, pencils and paper as a way to keep our children entertained. But drawing is… Read more »
April 18, 2023
Africa: If 1% of Covid-19 Cases Result in Death, Does That Mean You Have a 1% Chance of Dying If You Catch It?
As of April 2023, about 1% of people who contracted COVID-19 ended up dying. Does that mean you have a 1% chance of dying from COVID-19? Read more »
April 17, 2023
Africa: Predicting Epidemics Isn't Easy. We've Created a Global Dataset to Help
The world has recently seen a number of high-profile cross-border disease outbreaks and pandemics. The COVID pandemic and multi-country Mpox (monkeypox) outbreaks are just two… Read more »
Africa: Debt Dangers in Africa - How Defaults Hurt People, and Why Forgiveness Isn't the Answer
Public debt repayments in some African countries are at their highest levels since 1998. The Conversation Africa's founding editor Caroline Southey talks to dean and economics… Read more »
April 16, 2023
Africa: Africans in World War 1 - Artist William Kentridge's Epic Theatre Production Restores Forgotten Histories
South African artist William Kentridge became world famous for his charcoal drawings and hand-drawn animated films, but his work continued to grow in scope and he began staging… Read more »
April 14, 2023
Africa: DNA Study Opens a Window Into African Civilisations That Left a Lasting Legacy
Pre-colonial African history is alive with tales of civilisations rising and falling and of different cultures intermingling across the continent. We have now shed more light on… Read more »
April 12, 2023
Africa: Why Focusing On Covid Deaths Undercounts the Health Harms of the Pandemic - New Research
More than three years into the COVID pandemic, both the virus and the measures taken to control its spread have affected people's lives across the globe. But how can we fully… Read more »
April 11, 2023
Africa: Why Some Terror Campaigns Escalate to Civil War and Others Don't - Study Reveals Surprising New Answers
Most terrorist campaigns - where a group targets civilians to achieve political objectives - are short-lived. But some aren't. In some cases, terror campaigns (low-intensity… Read more »
April 10, 2023
Africa: Cervical Cancer Can Be Beaten - the Key Is Vaccinating Young Girls
In 2020 the World Health Organization introduced a plan to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health threat by 2030. The first step towards this goal is to have 90% of girls… Read more »
Africa: Energy Sector Will Need to Transform Radically - These Are the Five Biggest Challenges
The future of Africa's energy sector is getting increasing attention from policymakers and the private sector. As demand for energy rises, current energy systems must grow rapidly… Read more »
April 05, 2023
Africa: Several African Countries Have a Shortage of U.S. Dollars - Why This Happens and How to Fix It
A number of African countries, including Kenya, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana and Zambia, are currently experiencing shortages of US dollars. The dollar is the dominant currency… Read more »
April 04, 2023
Africa: Fake Medicines Are a Dangerous Threat in Africa - 3 Ways to Spot Them
At the end of a long day, you realise you're starting to get a headache. So you buy painkillers from the street vendor, and take two. But how do you know what those pills really… Read more »