Zimbabwe: Who Will Bury You? Short Stories From Zimbabwe About Women Who Refuse to Be Easily Defined

Zimbabwe-born, Canada-based Chido Muchemwa's debut short story collection, Who Will Bury You?, was published late in 2024 and immediately attracted the right kind of attention. Read more »

Malawi: Forest Loss in Malawi - How Having Women At the Table Affected Debates and Decisions About Solutions - Research

Around the world, climate change is being tackled, not just in parliaments and global summits, but also in villages and farming communities. In these local spaces, lives and… Read more »

South Africa: Surprise Results in Search for South African Lizard Species That Have Been Missing for Decades

What happens when a species has not been seen by anyone for decades? Environmentalists think of these as "lost species". We do not know if they've gone extinct, or if it's simply… Read more »

South Africa: Learning Statistics Through Story - Students Get Creative With Numbers

Statistics professor Johan Ferreira was feeling overwhelmed by the amount of "screen time" involved in online learning in 2021. He imagined students must be feeling the same way,… Read more »

South Africa: South Africa's Police Serve the ANC Insiders, Not the People - Here's How It Happened

After South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, there was significant optimism about police reform in the country. Impressive steps were taken to bring the South African… Read more »

South Africa: Johannesburg's Creative Hubs Are Booming - How Artists Are Rejuvenating a Failing Inner City

Johannesburg is weathering a storm of crises. Nowhere is its complex tangle of challenges more visible than in the inner city, where crime, overcrowding, and infrastructure… Read more »

South Africa: South African University Programmes to Support Black Students Aren't Working. What Needs to Be Done

Most universities and colleges have formal and informal programmes and initiatives to support student and staff development. Their goal is to create learning experiences that help… Read more »

South Africa: Nelson Mandela Was a Hard Man Who Played a Hard Game. What If He Was in Ramaphosa's Shoes?

In 2023 South African author Jonny Steinberg published a book on former South African president Nelson Mandela and his tumultuous marriage to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. To mark the… Read more »

South Africa: Bribery in South Africa - Law Now Puts a Duty On Companies to Act

Bribery is one of the most common forms of corruption in South African companies and state institutions. This has a number of harmful outcomes. Read more »

Zambia: Zambia Facing a Democratic Crossroads As It Enters a Fresh Constitutional Crisis

The election of Zambia's president, Hakainde Hichilema, in 2021 was widely interpreted as a victory for democracy. Zambia had suffered rising repression under former leader Edgar… Read more »

South Africa: Bullying, Violence and Vandalism in Primary School - Study Explores a Growing Crisis in South Africa

South African primary schools are facing a crisis. Every day, learners fight, bully, destroy property, and intimidate other learners and teachers, turning what should be safe… Read more »

Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe's Lithium Is in Demand for Making Batteries - How to Make Sure Benefits Flow to the Local Economy

Zimbabwe has the largest lithium reserves on the African continent. Lithium has been mined since the colonial period in the 1950s. It's a critical part of rechargeable lithium-ion… Read more »

Africa: Berg Winds in South Africa - the Winter Weather Pattern That Increases Wildfire Risks

Winter in some parts of South Africa is a time of low (or no) rainfall and high fire danger. Sheldon Strydom studies the relationship between weather and fire, in particular how… Read more »

Ghana: TikTok Users in Ghana and Zimbabwe Enjoy Making Fun of Government - Why It Can Have a Downside

Browse the internet or turn on the global news and chances are the coverage of Africa you find is about war, coups, displaced populations and disease. Read more »

South Africa: Devil Worship, Muti and Murder - What's Behind the Growth of Occult Gangs in South Africa?

Gang-related crime in South Africa is widespread, but is under-reported outside hotspots such as the Cape Flats in Cape Town or Westbury in Johannesburg. In these areas gangs are… Read more »

South Africa: Sacred Sites in South Africa Can Protect Natural Heritage and Culture - Here's How

Nature isn't confined to officially protected areas. A lot can be done to conserve biodiversity in other places too. The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity agreed in… Read more »

South Africa: Tax Season in South Africa - the System Is Designed to Tackle Inequality - How It Falls Short

South Africa's personal income tax system is in the spotlight as the country's tax filing season gets under way. Personal income tax is an important way of redistributing income… Read more »

Mozambique: Samora Machel's Vision for Mozambique Didn't Survive - What Has Taken Its Place?

Samora Moisés Machel, the first president of independent Mozambique, was born in 1933 in Gaza province, in the south of the country. He died in an unexplained plane crash on… Read more »

Zimbabwe: Alcohol and Colonialism - the Curious Story of the Bulawayo Beer Gardens

Kontuthu Ziyathunqa - Smoke Rising - was what they used to call Bulawayo when the city was the industrial powerhouse of Zimbabwe. Now, many of its factories lie dormant or… Read more »

South Africa: Cape Town's Sewage Treatment Isn't Coping - Scientists Are Worried About What the City Is Telling the Public

Urban water bodies - rivers, lakes and oceans - are in trouble globally. Large sewage volumes damage the open environment, and new chemicals and pharmaceutical compounds don't… Read more »

South Africa: Child Labour Numbers Rise in Homes Where Adults Are Jobless - South African Study

Child labour is a big concern across the world. It is particularly acute in countries in the global south, where it is estimated that about 160 million children are engaged in… Read more »

South Africa: Ruth First and Activist Research - the Legacy of a South African Freedom Fighter

Ruth First, born 100 years ago, was a South African freedom fighter, journalist and scholar who worked against the racist system of apartheid during white minority rule. She was… Read more »

South Africa: Fun With Fossils - South African Kids Learn a Whole Lot More About Human Evolution From Museum Workshops

South Africa has one of the world's richest fossil records of hominins (humans and their fossil ancestors). But many misconceptions still exist regarding human evolution, and… Read more »

South Africa: Eco Labels in South Africa Don't Do the Job - How to Help Customers Make Informed Choices

South Africans want to shop more sustainably, according to research published in the journal Sustainable Development. But most can't tell which products are environmentally… Read more »

South Africa: Decades of South African Research Reveal Key Strategies to Reduce Water Contamination in Fruit and Veg

Water is essential at all stages of food production, from irrigation to food processing to washing fruit and vegetables before we eat them. Crops and livestock need it to grow, but… Read more »