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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

Africa: Happy Songs - These Are the Musical Elements That Make Us Feel Good

Music has a unique power to affect the way people feel and many people use music to enhance or change their mood, channel emotions and for psychological support. Read more »

Africa: Why Elite Athletes Should Develop Mindfulness to Up Their Game

Athletes at the very highest level of their sport face the challenge of performing consistently under pressure amid many potential distractions, including performance anxiety,… Read more »

Africa: The Gaming Audience Is 'Queerer Than Ever' - So How Are Game Creators Responding?

Mainstream games are embracing openly queer characters - and so are many of their players and fans. Read more »

Africa: Polio - Leading Virologist Offers a Beginner's Guide to the Different Viruses and Vaccines

On 17 March 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that health officials in Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) had detected cases of vaccine-derived… Read more »

Africa: Long Covid Puts Some People At Higher Risk of Heart Disease - They Need Better Long-Term Monitoring

Lasting damage to the heart and brain is an aspect of long COVID that should receive much more attention than it has so far. We have sufficient evidence now to call for ongoing… Read more »

Africa: Industries Can Harm Health in Many Ways - Here Are 3 That Aren't So Obvious

A recent ground-breaking series of reports in the science journal The Lancet unpacks what commercial determinants of health are, and how they affect public health. It uses a new,… Read more »

Africa: The World Is Hooked On Junk Food - How Big Companies Pull It Off

It is almost impossible nowadays to listen to the radio, watch TV or scroll through social media without being exposed to an advertisement telling us that all we need for a little… Read more »

Africa: Young People in Africa Should Have a Say in Decisions That Affect Their Health

Most of Africa's population - 70% - is under 30 years old. In 2017 there were 628 million young people under 25 on the continent. This figure is predicted to reach 945 million by… Read more »

Africa: Bird Flu FAQ

Avian influenza ("bird flu") is a highly contagious viral infection that affects wild and domestic birds worldwide. It has recently gained notoriety for its devastating impact on… Read more »

Africa: Profit Versus Health - 4 Ways Big Global Industries Make People Sick

It's now more commonly known that alcohol and tobacco use make us ill. Less known is that just four industries account for at least one-third of global preventable deaths. These… Read more »