December 11, 2023
Mozambique: Queer Life in Africa Is Also Full of Joy - Remembering the Carnival in Mozambique
In late colonial Mozambique, in the city of Lourenço Marques (today's Maputo), a carnival festival was held almost every year. From the 1950s to the 1970s, the event was… Read more »
South Africa: South Africa Leads the Continent in Offering More Paternal Leave to Fathers. How to Make Sure Both Parents Benefit
A South African high court has ushered in a new era of parental leave with a landmark ruling that new parents can share four months of parental leave, previously available only to… Read more »
East Africa: 'You Reach a Point Where You Have Nothing. You Will Just Die' - in East African Refugee Camps, Food Scarcity Is a Mortal Concern
For refugees living in settlements across Africa, life got more difficult in 2023. Read more »
December 10, 2023
Africa: Improved Employment Policies Can Encourage Fathers to Be More Involved At Home
While the COVID-19 pandemic had many detrimental socio-economic and health impacts, one silver lining has been the influence of remote work on men's involvement in unpaid work at… Read more »
Africa: Trash to Treasure - Africa Powers Up from Garbage Dumps
New research on garbage dumps in 44 sub-Saharan African countries shows that 95% are unregulated. The landfill sites still take in new garbage even when they are filled to… Read more »
Uganda: Uganda Will Soon Be Exporting Oil - an Energy Economist Outlines 3 Keys to Success
Uganda entered into agreements in 2012 with two foreign oil entities to exploit its oil resources. Total Energies holds 56.67% of the joint venture partnership and China National… Read more »
December 08, 2023
Kenya: Humiliation and Violence in Kenya's Colonial Days - When Old Men Were Called 'Boy' and Africans Were Publicly Beaten
When King Charles visited Kenya in November 2023, many Kenyans renewed their demands for an official apology for atrocities committed by the British government during the colonial… Read more »
Africa: Frozen Methane Under the Seabed Is Thawing As Oceans Warm - and Things Are Worse Than We Thought
Buried beneath the oceans surrounding continents is a naturally occurring frozen form of methane and water. Sometimes dubbed ''fire-ice'' as you can literally set light to it,… Read more »
Kenya: Kenya At 60 - The Shameful Truth About British Colonial Abuse and How It Was Covered Up
It is fairly well known that the lives of hundreds of thousands of Kenyans were affected by terrible acts of violence under the British colonial administration. The British… Read more »
Africa: The Disagreement Between Two Climate Scientists That Will Decide Our Future
Getting to net zero emissions by mid-century is conventionally understood as humanity's best hope for keeping Earth's surface temperature (already 1.2°C above its… Read more »
Africa: From the Paris Agreement to COP28, How Oil and Gas Giants Try to Influence the Global Climate Agenda
There is ''no science'' behind demands to phase out fossil fuels, according to the current COP president. This level of cynicism at the top of the annual climate summit makes it… Read more »
December 07, 2023
East Africa: 4 East African Countries Are Going for Nuclear Power - Why This Is a Bad Idea
The east Africa region has the fastest growing population in Africa. Between 2013 and 2017, its growth rate was twice the African average. The region is also experiencing strong… Read more »
Namibia: Apartheid in Namibia - Why Human Rights and Women Are Celebrated On the Same Day
10 December is worldwide commemorated as Human Rights Day. It marks the anniversary of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted on that day in 1948. Many countries and… Read more »
Uganda: Terror in Uganda - What's Driving the Islamic State-Linked Rebels
The Islamic State Central Africa Province recently attacked and killed two foreign tourists and a citizen in a Ugandan nature park. Located in the country's west near the border… Read more »
South Africa: 46% of South Africa Water Contaminated, Treatment Works on Brink of Collapse
A new report by South Africa's Department of Water and Sanitation paints a grim picture of the quality of the country's drinking water, and its water infrastructure. The Blue Drop… Read more »
Africa: Climate 'Tipping Points' Can Be Positive Too - Our Report Sets Out How to Engineer a Domino Effect of Rapid Changes
A young boy is forced to sit at a dinner table with grown-ups talking endlessly about grown-up stuff. He's bored. He finds it hard at first, to push with his feet against the table… Read more »
December 06, 2023
South Africa: COP28 - South Africa Pioneered Plans to Transition to Renewable Energy - What Went Wrong
South Africa's experience in piloting a new type of climate finance vehicle can inform debates about how to fund a just transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Read more »
Ghana: Ghana's Media Treats Terrorism As a Threat From Outside - It Overlooks Violence At Home
In 2022, 43% of all global terrorism deaths occurred in the Sahel - the region south of the Sahara Desert and stretching east-west across the African continent. West Africa had… Read more »
Congo-Kinshasa: DRC Elections - Three Factors That Have Shaped Tshisekedi's Bumpy First Term As President
Africa's second-largest country by land mass, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is scheduled to go to the polls on 20 December 2023. President Felix Tshisekedi will be… Read more »
Africa: Climate Tipping Points Are Nearer Than You Think - Our New Report Warns of Catastrophic Risk
It's now almost inevitable that 2023 will be the warmest year ever recorded by humans, probably the warmest for at least 125,000 years. Read more »
Africa: Don't Applaud the Climate Summit's Loss and Damage Fund Deal Just Yet - It Might Not Warrant That Standing Ovation
Shortly after the opening ceremony of the 2023 United Nations climate negotiations in Dubai, delegates of nations around the world rose in a standing ovation to celebrate a… Read more »
Africa: How Agriculture Can Make The Most of One of The World's Biggest Carbon Sink, Soil
It's right under our feet. We barely notice as we go about our lives, yet it is nothing less than the largest carbon repository among all of Earth's ecosystems. This distinction is… Read more »
Africa: Rural Communities Are Being Left Behind Because of Poor Digital Infrastructure, Research Shows
In an era where businesses and households depend on the internet for everything from marketing to banking and shopping, the lack of adequate digital access can be a significant… Read more »
December 05, 2023
South Africa: Golden Mole That Swims Through Sand Is Rediscovered in South Africa After 86 Years
The De Winton's golden mole was last seen in 1937 on the north-western coast of South Africa, and later declared officially lost. This iridescent blind mole with hearing… Read more »
Kenya: Mohamed Amin Was a Famous Kenyan Photojournalist - There's Much More to His Work Than Images of Tragedy
Kenyan photojournalist Mohamed Amin (1943-1996) rose to fame for documenting the 1984 famine in neighbouring Ethiopia with powerful images of the tragedy. He also captured the… Read more »