Two of South Africa’s finest musicians, Johnny Mekoa and Ray Phiri, died recently. The permeable terrain between genres their careers negotiated, is being replaced by rigid marketing categories.
Children play at a school some 50 km south of Malawi’s capital Lilongwe.
Reuters/Antony Njuguna
Malawi’s government wants schools to promote democratic principles. But there’s a contradiction between what students are taught and how they’re expected to behave.
Cape Town offers is an example of one city balancing resilience and justice.
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Eight Tanzanians have been arrested in Malawi after looking into a uranium mine. They say the country has no right to flout the rule of law and to harass groups acting in the public interest.
Malawi faces the biggest overhaul in its electoral system since the 1990s.
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The proposed change to Malawi’s electoral system is straightforward and makes logical sense. Yet it’s more complex and if adopted would revolutionise local politics.
US President Donald Trump stamped his inaugural speech with the promise of ‘America First’ – a slogan with an ominous past.
Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
Rhodesia’s white supremacists appealed to the white electorate by taking a stand against African liberation. Similarly, Donald Trump appealed to white Americans who feel overwhelmed by globalisation.
Malawi is a country that’s particularly vulnerable to the impact of drought and flood.
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Understanding the connections between basic food demands and accessibility to water and energy is important when it comes to climate change and its impact on agriculture and livelihoods.
Healthy, supported children can be a boon to their countries’ economies.
Reuters/Tiksa Negeri
Poor childhood conditions, such as exposure to poverty and stunting, are associated with long-term disadvantages to health, education, social adjustment and earnings.
In rural Malawi traditional leaders have played an important role in persuading men to get involved in women’s health.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
A study in Malawi shows how the participation of local community leaders in policy development can change men’s attitudes to maternal and child health for the better.
Drought tolerant beans in Malawi. Africa needs improved agricultural practices to be implemented by smallholder farmers.
Neil Palmer/CGIAR Research Program/ Flickr
It’s important to create spaces where the global South’s problems can be presented, debated and solutions developed - including some that can be applied in similar economies.
US President elect Donald Trump greets supporters on election night in New York.
Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
The world’s best known talk show host has become the president-elect of the most powerful country in the world. Trump running the US is unlikely to be good news for Africa.
Peter Mutharika, President of Malawi, addresses the 69th United Nations General Assembly. He never went home for a month afterwards.
Lucas Jackson/Reuters
One needs to understand Malawian politics to appreciate the bizarre episode in which a state president was unaccounted for a month, leaving a nation rudderless and puzzled.
Participants in the Finote Hiwot project to end child, early and forced marriage in Ethiopia.
Department for International Development/Jessica Lea
A number of African states are taking positive steps to combat violence against girls and child marriage. But social and cultural barriers can nullify national laws and strategies.
Ntombithini Ndwandwe, an agroecology farmer displaying her diversity of traditional seeds in Zimele, KwaZulu-Natal.
Rachel Wynberg
Since 2000, the growth of the commercial seed market has almost tripled. More than 63% of the world’s commercial seed is now owned by six corporations.
“Free” education is not fair or sustainable.
Reuters/Mark Hutchings
Higher education is a resource intensive enterprise. It cannot effectively function without a massive injection of resources in a sustained and escalated manner.
People with disabilities living in Madwaleni in the Eastern Cape have difficulty accessing healthcare.
Richard Vergunst
Frederick Baijukya, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and Fred Kanampiu, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)
Increasing legume production can turn the tide for African farmers who struggle with poor soils, declining farm yields and worsening nutrition in one fell swoop
Hair speaks of the past, and of cultural heritage.
Steve Evans/Flickr
Hair has long been modified for aesthetic and other ends. But skewed power structures have meant that women, particularly women of colour, have borne the brunt of stereotyping and prejudice.
Associate Professor, Department of Environmental and Geographical Science and African Climate and Development Initiative Research Chair, University of Cape Town