African

A new set of TikTok videos developed by Black African youth shows the veracity of racial stereotypes in schools. Credit: UniSA Assumptions, misconceptions, and stereotypes—no one wants to be judged by how they look or where they're from. But for many Black African students, that's their reality and it's taking a serious toll on their well-being and sense of belonging. …

Preceded by a crew of gymnasts who shot fire — and themselves — high in the air, Black Sherif earned a hero’s welcome when he took the stage at the El-Wak Stadium in Accra, Ghana, to headline the AfroFuture festival last December. The event, which has become one of the hallmarks of winter celebrations in West Africa, attracted roughly 40,000 attendees across its two days, according to its founder. Black Sherif was the sole Ghanaian artist to headline, and he stands as one his country’s brightest stars thanks to his…

Credit: CC0 Public Domain Sexual harassment often goes unchecked in sub-Saharan African newsrooms despite many employers having policies in place, according to a study conducted by City, University of London and the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Researchers Dr. Lindsey Blumell (City) and Dinfin Mulupi (Maryland)…

Situated in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, Calvinia is a rural town blessed with a magnificently scenic landscape, where towering mountain ranges give way to far-reaching plains. It is also the birthplace of film-maker Rudivan der Merwe, whose documentary ode, with its triptych structure guided by childhood memories, is both a pilgrimage and farewell to his home town.Van der Merwe first fixes his camera on his parents, who were livestock ranchers. In contrast to the supposed quaintness of farm life, the…

A combination of cable cuts, resulting in equipment faults on the major undersea cables along the West African Coast, have negatively impacted data and fixed telecom services in several countries of West Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Cote de Ivoire, among others. The cuts occurred somewhere in Cote de’Ivoire and Senegal, with an attendant disruption in Portugal. Cable companies – West African Cable System (WACS) and African Coast to Europe (ACE) in the West Coast route from Europe have…

A new paper found that large language models from OpenAI, Meta, and Google, including multiple versions of ChatGPT, can be covertly racist against African Americans when analyzing a critical part of their identity: how they speak.No Google AI Search, I Don’t Need to Learn About the “Benefits of Slavery” Published in early March, the paper studied how large language models, or LLMs, carried out tasks, such as pairing people to certain jobs, based on whether the text analyzed was in African American English or Standard…

Study shows that the engagement of African women and young people in agricultural service provision is 'not a panacea to the challenges they face' such as limited decision-making in production and income. Credit: CABI The role of African women and young people engaged in agricultural service provision has been investigated in a new CABI-led study published in the CABI Agriculture and Bioscience journal.…

A study in East Africa has found that invasive ants are altering ecosystems by reducing tree cover, affecting lions’ ability to hunt zebras. This change forces lions to adapt by targeting more formidable prey like buffaloes. The research emphasizes the unexpected impact of small species on large ecosystems and highlights ongoing efforts to find solutions to preserve the landscape.What makes the little old ant think he can disrupt the life of an African lion? Researchers say it’s more than just high hopes.In a study…

President Bola Tinubu says Nigeria is ready to host the African Central Bank in line with the vision of the Abuja Treaty. Addressing leaders at the 37th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Saturday, President Tinubu said his administration will engage the African Union Commission in collaboration with member states to ensure that the bank takes off as scheduled in 2028. The President affirmed that Africa’s success in conclusively…

Preserved heads of two new millipede species, Lophostreptus magombera and Udzungwastreptus marianae. Credit: University of the Sunshine CoastResearchers have uncovered a new genus and five new species of millipedes in remote African jungles – and say the many-legged creatures could hold important clues to whether woody vines are choking or protecting the world’s forests.University of the Sunshine Coast Professor Andy Marshall said they found the millipedes – with heads that look somewhat like Star Wars characters – among…