May 24, 2023
Africa: Male Video Game Characters Speak Twice As Much As Females, Largest Study of Its Kind Reveals
Video games are played by nearly three billion people worldwide and make more money annually than the film industry. Around 50% of gamers are female but gaming has chronic problems… Read more »
May 23, 2023
South Africa: Sign Language Is Set to Become Country's 12th Official Language
Sign language is on its way to become the 12th official language in South Africa after parliament recently agreed to amend the constitution to this end. The move will bring to… Read more »
Africa: Ancient Humans May Have Paused in Arabia for 30,000 Years On Their Way Out of Africa
Most scientists agree modern humans developed in Africa, more than 200,000 years ago, and that a great human diaspora across much of the rest of the world occurred between perhaps… Read more »
Africa: Building a Nutrition Programme? Understanding How People Behave Is Key
Undernutrition contributes to up to 45% of child deaths in African countries. At the same time, child obesity rates have doubled between 2006 and 2016. More than 40% of women of… Read more »
South Africa: Cholera - a Symptom of Two Decades of Continued Sewage Pollution and Neglect
South Africans have expressed outrage at the deaths of at least 15 residents of Hammanskraal, in the city of Tshwane. The deaths were caused by cholera - a diarrhoeal disease… Read more »
Sudan: Sudan's Peace Mediation Should Be Led By the African Union - 3 Reasons Why
Questions about who mediates in a conflict - and when - are crucial. Mediation is about trust, an awareness of regional realities and insights into complex politics. It should… Read more »
Africa: Alluring, Classic, Glamorous - The History of the Martini Cocktail
The martini cocktail has existed in a range of guises throughout its ice-cold, crisp life. Read more »
South Africa: World's Oldest Homo Sapiens Footprint Identified On South Africa's Cape South Coast
Just over two decades ago, as the new millennium began, it seemed that tracks left by our ancient human ancestors dating back more than about 50,000 years were excessively rare. Read more »
May 22, 2023
Africa: Dangote Launches Africa's Biggest Oil Refinery - 4 Ways It Will Affect Nigeria
Nigeria's new Dangote petroleum refinery is Africa's biggest - it will produce 650,000 barrels a day, giving it the potential to address the country's energy supply crisis. Read more »
Africa: New Research Reveals the Bittersweet Truth of Cocoa Farming in Africa's Forests
Chocolate sales have boomed in recent months. As the cost-of-living crisis bites, consumers are increasingly reaching for chocolate as a simple and affordable pleasure. Read more »
Somalia: Somaliland Crisis - Delayed Elections and Armed Conflict Threaten Dream of Statehood
With a presidential election delayed for months and deadly clashes between security forces and clan militias, Somaliland's reputation for stability lies in ruins. Violence erupted… Read more »
South Africa: South Africa's 10 Year-Olds Are Struggling to Read - It Can Be Fixed
More than 80% of South Africa's grade 4 pupils - who are on average nine or 10 years old - cannot read for meaning. That means they can't answer basic questions about or draw… Read more »
Sudan: Khartoum - the Creation and the Destruction of a Modern African City
Khartoum is - was - a city that did not know war or fighting in its recent history. Now it is in the grip of a civil war between rival military forces. Read more »
May 21, 2023
Africa: Get-Rich-Quick Schemes, Pyramids and Ponzis - Five Signs You're Being Scammed
Consumers are under a lot of financial strain. The World Economic Forum reports that the cost-of-living crisis is affecting people across the globe. With food and fuel prices… Read more »
Nigeria: Nigeria's City of Ilé-Ifẹ̀ Has Survived and Thrived for 1,000 Years - Here's How
By the end of this century, the three most populous cities in the world are expected to be in Africa, with Lagos in Nigeria leading as home to 88.3 million people. Read more »
Africa: Grand Infrastructure Projects Aren't a Magic Bullet for Industrial Development - Insights From Ghana and Kenya
The African Union's flagship Agenda 2063 initiative prioritises large-scale infrastructure development and promises to "link the continent by rail, road, sea and air". Read more »
South Africa: South Africa's Reading Crisis - 5 Steps to Address Children's Literacy Struggles
Kunyashe is a Grade 1 pupil in Cape Town, South Africa. She's very focused on her schoolwork. She shares a tiny one-roomed shack, hardly bigger than a double bed, with her mother… Read more »
May 19, 2023
Africa: African Architects Challenge Venice Exhibition to Decolonise and Start New Conversations
Presented since 1979, the Venice Architecture Biennale (La Biennale di Venezia) is possibly the most influential architecture exhibition in the world. For the first time, this… Read more »
May 18, 2023
Kenya: Baboon Bonds - New Study Reveals That Friendships Make Up for a Bad Start in Life
Childhoods can predict a great deal about how adult lives might play out. For instance, research has shown that people whose childhoods involve poverty, abuse and neglect have… Read more »
South Africa: South African Diamonds Adorn the Crown of King Charles - Why They're Unlikely to Be Returned
Opera singer Pretty Yende and foreign minister Naledi Pandor were not the only South African presence at the coronation of King Charles III. Also there were the stones cut from the… Read more »
Africa: U.S. Laws to Promote Home-Grown Industries Will Hurt African Economies
The Biden administration has ratcheted up protectionism and industrial policy amid surging economic tensions with China. Legislation passed in 2022 unlocked hundreds of billions of… Read more »
Nigeria: Obaro Ikime Was One of Nigeria's Great Scholars - He Showed Why History Matters in Building African Nations
Iku o mo eni'san! "Death does not know the good ones" is a Yoruba phrase to describe the indiscriminate nature of death. If character and social values were considered in the… Read more »
South Africa: The Plot to Save South Africa - Masterful Account of an Assassination That Nearly Derailed Efforts to End Apartheid
I was about to set off to the airport on the morning of 10 April 1993 to cover the great American boxer Muhammad Ali's arrival in Johannesburg when the news came through: Chris… Read more »
May 17, 2023
Africa: 91% of Sub-Saharan African Workers Don't Save for Old Age - Why That's a Problem and How to Fix It
Less than 10% of the workers in sub-Saharan Africa save for old age, the lowest rate for any region in the world. That implies most of the breadwinners today won't be able to… Read more »
Sudan: University Students Have a Long History of Political Activism
The latest fighting to erupt in Sudan has plunged the nation into a fresh crisis. Since 15 April, conflict between the Sudan Armed Forces and the paramilitary group Rapid Support… Read more »