September 23
South Africa: Colonialism and Apartheid Stripped Black South Africans of Land and Labour Rights - the Effects Are Still Felt Today
Land dispossession among South Africa's majority black population remains a thorny issue 30 years into democracy. Labour law scholar Marthinus van Staden's new research examines… Read more »
Africa: Powering Africa - New Model Compares Options for Off-Grid Solar in 43 Countries
Sub-Saharan Africa, home to 80% of the global population without electricity access, is unlikely to reach the United Nations' goal of access to affordable, reliable, sustainable… Read more »
September 22
Lesotho: Lesotho Needs Constitutional Reforms to Help Gain Political Stability
Lesotho, a small country landlocked by South Africa, has been struggling to make constitutional reforms since the advent of coalition politics in 2012. It needs the reforms to… Read more »
Africa: Caine Prize for African Writing - Nadia Davids On Her Winning Story About Women and Freedom
South African playwright, academic, novelist and short story writer Nadia Davids is the winner of the 2024 Caine Prize for African Writing. It's an important award that has played… Read more »
Africa: Africa Is the World's Largest Market for Guinness Beer - How Its Ad Campaigns Exploit Men
Africa is the world's largest market for Guinness beer (and Nigeria is second only to Britain for the most consumers in one country). The Irish brand's success on the continent is… Read more »
September 19
Africa: XEC - What You Need to Know About the New Covid Variant
A new COVID variant is spreading rapidly and could soon become the dominant variant around the globe. The variant, called XEC, was first detected in Germany in August and appears… Read more »
South Africa: South Africa Has a New Education Law - Some Love It, Some Hate It
South Africa has a new law governing education. The Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act changes several aspects of how schools are managed. It was introduced to address… Read more »
Africa: Africans Who Apply for Schengen Visas Face High Rejection Rates - Migration Scholar Explains Why
Africans face a high rejection rate for visas to enter the Schengen group of countries. The group is made up of 29 European countries that have officially abolished border controls… Read more »
Namibia: Female Elephants Rumble to Say 'Let's Go!' - New Study
In elephant family groups made up of related females and their young, it is clear that the animals produce vocal sounds to coordinate action. This happens when it's time to leave a… Read more »
South Africa: Mysterious South African Cave Painting May Have Been Inspired By Fossils
A mysterious animal painted on a cave wall in South Africa's Free State Province has long baffled scientists. Is it a walrus? It looks like one, but there are no such animals in… Read more »
Africa: UN Peacekeeping in Africa - Essential Reads On What's Gone Wrong and What Can Be Done
The United Nations security council - the most powerful body of the UN - is the institution that is primarily responsible for maintaining international peace and security. But it's… Read more »
September 18
East Africa: Kenya's Femicide Cases - 'Declare a Crisis Now'
Ugandan athlete and Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei died in September 2024 after being set alight by a man she knew in Eldoret, Kenya. Cheptegei's murder was reported to have been about… Read more »
Sudan: Sudan's Civilians Urgently Need Protection - the Options for International Peacekeeping
In September 2024, the United Nations' independent fact-finding mission to Sudan issued its first report. Citing grave human rights violations amounting to war crimes and crimes… Read more »
Zimbabwe: Lithium Mining in Zimbabwe - a Story of Loss for One Community
Lithium is an essential component of electric vehicle batteries, which are becoming more important as the world moves to a low-carbon energy future. Large deposits of lithium exist… Read more »
South Africa: South Africa's Gauteng Province Launches Water Data Hub - Residents Can Now Keep Track of Shortages and Repair Issues
South Africa is a water scarce country. In other words it has an excess of demand over available supply. It also has low water security - the ability to ensure sustainable access… Read more »
South Africa: Joe Modise Biography Dismisses Corruption Claims Against the Former South African Defence Minister
The new biography of Joe Modise, one-time commander of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of South Africa's African National Congress (ANC), is welcome. Comrade and Commander… Read more »
September 17
Africa: The Sierra Leonian Gangster Who Gave up Violence and Drugs for Poetry
For the past five years, the GANGS project, a European Research Council-funded project led by Dennis Rodgers, has been studying global gang dynamics in a comparative perspective.… Read more »
Africa: Why China Is Seeking Greater Presence in Africa
China's relationship with Africa is set to deepen. At a summit in Beijing in early September, China's president, Xi Jinping, pledged to deliver US$51 billion (£39 billion) in… Read more »
Africa: South Africa Needs More Nautical Scientists and Maritime Engineers
When most people are asked to picture an engineer at work, they probably imagine a civil engineer in a hard hat at a construction site, a chemical engineer in a laboratory or an… Read more »
Sierra Leone: Sierra Leone Is Working to Transform Its Food System, but It Faces Mounting Challenges
One of the most pressing issues facing humanity is the need to transform food systems to become more equitable, environmentally sustainable, able to deliver healthy diets for all,… Read more »
Africa: Four Ways Africa Is Already Seeing the Effects of Climate Change
Africa is already being heavily affected by climate change. Between 1991 and 2023, the African continent warmed at a rate of 0.3°C per decade, a rate slightly faster than the… Read more »
Kenya: Kenya Could Run Out of Money to Repay Massive Debts - How to Avoid This
Data from Kenya's central bank show that public debt (total money owed) declined between December 2023 and June 2024. Read more »
South Africa: South Africa's Move to Green Energy Was Slowed Down By Govt to Protect Coal Mining
South Africa's Department of Mineral Resources and Energy was split in two after the 2024 general elections: Electricity and Energy and Mineral and Petroleum Resources. Part of the… Read more »
Africa: Scientists Have Found Evidence of Past Extreme Solar Storms. Their Return Could Be Disastrous for Our Technology-Based Societies
In September 1859, the same year that Darwin published On the Origin of Species, telegraph systems across Europe and North America stopped working and started sparking, leading to… Read more »
September 16
South Africa: South African Universities Need to Rethink How They Evaluate Research - Social Impact Counts Too
There are many ways university researchers can share their work. Some of these methods are well-established in academia: people write journal articles, book chapters and entire… Read more »