International reaction to Gaza siege has exposed the growing rift between the West and the Global South as Jorge Heine explains.
Category: History
A rose by any other name
As Chinedum Art Michael tries to name his newborn daughter, he ponders the reasons Nigerians give their children certain names.
Kiswahili: how a standard version of the east African language was formed – and spread across the world
Kiswahili originated in east Africa, spreading around the continent and the globe. It’s been adopted as a working language at the African Union and there’s a push for it to become Africa’s lingua franca or common language. Morgan J. Robinson is a historian of east Africa with a research focus on language who has published a book on Kiswahili called A Language for the World. We asked Morgan J. Robinson, of Mississippi State University how today’s accepted standard version of Kiswahili came into being.
Animal Farm has been translated into Shona
Tinashe Mushakavanhu from the University of Oxford explains why a group of Zimbabwean writers undertook the task.
A vaccine is approved for malaria, while cholera spreads – the weekly news quiz
From the approval of the first malaria vaccine, to an outbreak of cholera in several states – test your knowledge of what has happened in Nigeria this week.
The quiz is brought to you by Adetomiwa Isiaka, who writes the newsletter, That New News , a wry look at the week’s news stories. She tweets at @bellexsans.
What Will Happen in Sudan?
The current crisis exposes the motives of the men with guns. It requires, paradoxically, the intervention of a distracted international community that has done little to support a democratic transition, writes Nick Westcott.
DNA study opens a window into African civilisations that left a lasting legacy
Pre-colonial African history is alive with tales of civilisations rising and falling and of different cultures intermingling across the continent. We have now shed more light on some of these societies using the science of genetics, writes Nancy Bird.