On a recent trip to Zimbabwe, Xi Jinping announced $60bn in development funding. It’s an incredibly ambitious project.
The Nairobi-Thika highway is being built by China Wuyi, Sinohydro and Shengeli Engineering Construction, and is funded by Kenya, China and the African Development Bank.
Reuters/Thomas Mukoya
China offers an alternative to traditional donors and investors in low- and middle-income countries. Adding to its appeal is its focus on infrastructure projects.
Protesting students from the University of Zimbabwe take to the streets of Harare in 2001.
Howard Burditt/Reuters
In 1988 students from the University of Zimbabwe began demonstrating against government corruption. Their protests grew into a national movement that indelibly changed the country.
Lake Kariba’s water evel is down to under 30% – and it may worsen.
Shutterstock
Willem Landman, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
The upcoming El Niño event may see an even bigger drop in the water level of Lake Kariba. This will have terrible consequences for the people using the river.
A painting from Botha’s Shelter in the Ndedema Gorge in the Drakensburg, said to be home to a rich tapestry of San art and life.
Wits University Press
Formlings are representations of flying termites and their underground nests. They are associated with botantical subjects considered by the San to have great spiritual significance.
Robert Mugabe on the day the 91-year-old president read out the wrong speech at the opening of parliament.
Reuters/Philimon Bulawayo
Robert Mugabe is no novice when it comes to reading wrong speeches. But he is in good company.
King Mswati III, centre, with his regiments at Ludzidzini royal palace during the annual Reed Dance in August. Swaziland ranks among the worst in Africa for its level of democracy.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Satisfaction with democracy varies widely in Africa. Across 28 countries, only 46% of citizens say they are “very satisfied” or “fairly satisfied” with the way democracy works in their countries.
I spent most of August 2015 in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia – a depressing and mournful tour indeed. The place I stayed in South Africa, on the outskirts of Johannesburg, is atypical. I am almost…
Angry messages taped up outside Palmer’s dental office were repeated thousands of times online.
Eric Miller/Reuters
Now that Cecil the Lion is gone, what lessons can be taken from the controversial manner of his death?
Stuffed animals left by protesters block the doorway of River Bluff Dental clinic in Bloomington, Minnesota. Dentist Walter James Palmer, an American hunter, has been accused of killing the lion without a permit after paying $50,000 to two people who lured it out of Hwange National Park.
Reuters/David Bailey
The fact that people are still travelling thousands of miles to kill exotic animals and bring back trophies shows deeply rooted cultural problems in Western societies.
The belief that land stands only for production of agricultural commodities destined for the market is perverted. The primacy of the market and private property are contrary to the African worldview.
Grace Mugabe, scourge of her husband’s opponents.
EPA/Aaron Ufumeli
The Roman god, Saturn, ate his children, but was overthrown by one who got away. For politicians, the moral of the story is that you have to keep eating them, and hunt down all who might escape. That is…
There are many African presidents whose age far outstrips that of their peers on other continents. David Cameron (47), Barack Obama (53), François Hollande (60), Merkel (60), Vladimir Putin (61) – these…
Serving prophetic Raëlness at Seoul’s Love Hug Festival.
Kmarinas86
Each age has its visionaries, and the 21st century is no exception. Prophets do not belong to the past, but indeed to the present and invariably to the future. They are timeless because their lives and…
This Vietnamese school girl is growing up in a new era: by the time she is middle-aged, 60% of the world’s children will be living in a tropical region.
UN Photo/Mark Garten
Our Tropical Future: A new report on the State of the Tropics has revealed rapid changes in human and environmental health in the Earth’s tropical regions. This is the first in a four-part series about…
He may look like a 90-year-old pariah, but Mugabe’s presence is as strong as ever.
EPA/STR
The Robert Mugabe who returned from Singapore for his 90th birthday celebrations was sprightly and energised. His Singapore sojourns, officially designated as trips to treat eye problems, invigorate more…