Tag: Africa

‘Fonio just grows naturally’: could ancient indigenous crops ensure food security for Africa?

Only breaking at midday to refuel on peanuts and palm wine, the village works methodically as a unit to grow fonio – a precious grain crucial to their diets that only takes days to germinate and can be harvested in as little as six weeks. Though laborious, growing fonio, one of Africa’s oldest cultivated grains,… Read More ‘Fonio just grows naturally’: could ancient indigenous crops ensure food security for Africa?

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Gupta brothers arrested in Dubai over alleged corruption in South Africa

Two wealthy Indian-born business brothers who were allegedly at the centre of a massive web of state corruption in South Africa have been arrested in Dubai, Pretoria announced on Monday. The arrests came as an investigation was concluded into massive plundering of state institutions during former president Jacob Zuma’s era. South Africa’s justice ministry “confirms that… Read More Gupta brothers arrested in Dubai over alleged corruption in South Africa

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Literature from the Congo Basin offers ways to address the climate crisis

The African continent is responsible for only 2–3% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions from energy and industrial sources. But it’s alarmingly suffering from the effects of the climate crisis, as reports from the UN and others show. On the positive side, Africa has a huge potential for climate mitigation, especially thanks to its tropical rainforests. The Congo Basin’s rainforests in central Africa… Read More Literature from the Congo Basin offers ways to address the climate crisis

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Charles Helm – Ancient human tracks on South Africa’s west coast: 3 reasons they are an exciting find

It’s been 27 years since geologist David Roberts identified some of the oldest footprints of our species ever discovered. The trackway of three footprints was found on the surface of a cemented sand dune (called an aeolianite) near Langebaan on South Africa’s west coast. The tracks were later dated to 117,000 years and were attributed to Homo… Read More Charles Helm – Ancient human tracks on South Africa’s west coast: 3 reasons they are an exciting find

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Book review: how Africa was central to the making of the modern world

Journalist, photographer, author and professor Howard W. French’s Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War, is the most recent in a long career of thoughtful and significant literary and journalistic interventions. It demands an account of modernity that reckons with Africa as central to the… Read More Book review: how Africa was central to the making of the modern world

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LIZ THEOHARIS: Which Way America? Confronting Christian Nationalism in the Spirit of Desmond Tutu

Tomdispatch.com  – If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality – Archbishop Desmond Tutu    The world lost a great moral leader this Christmas… Read More LIZ THEOHARIS: Which Way America? Confronting Christian Nationalism in the Spirit of Desmond Tutu

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Sada Mire: Africa’s heritage is humanity’s – and it’s been overlooked for too long

In my first class on an archaeology course at Lund University in Sweden, I stood out more than usual. It was not just that it was full of blond and blue-eyed students, more than in any other class I had ever attended – it was that archaeology is not a field that many migrants study.… Read More Sada Mire: Africa’s heritage is humanity’s – and it’s been overlooked for too long

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Desmond Mpilo Tutu 1931-2021. A Tribute by Terry Bell

The Arch is dead. Desmond Mpilo Tutu, archbishop emeritus of the Anglican church and Nobel Peace Prize winner who fought a long battle with cancer died on December 26 , 11 weeks after his 90Ath birthday.  His work within and after South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) reinforced his position as an international icon,… Read More Desmond Mpilo Tutu 1931-2021. A Tribute by Terry Bell

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Archbishop Desmond Tutu: tributes paid to ‘a moral giant’ after anti-apartheid hero dies

Desmond Tutu, the cleric and social activist who was a giant of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, has died aged 90.  Desmond Tutu, giant in fight against apartheid South Africa, dies at 90 Desmond Tutu: A life in pictures Desmond Tutu, the first Black archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, and who received… Read More Archbishop Desmond Tutu: tributes paid to ‘a moral giant’ after anti-apartheid hero dies

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