African

Bantu migrations reconstructed from linguistic data. The homeland is marked with a star, the main nodes are numbered (1-3), and the origins of the main clades (0-23) are marked with their respective colors. Credit: Michelle O'Reilly The Bantu Expansion transformed sub-Saharan Africa's linguistic, economic, and cultural composition. Today, more than 240 million people speak one of the more than 500 Bantu languages. It is…

Qwili, a startup that provides a hybrid sales product to micro and small merchants in South Africa, has raised $1.2 million in seed funding a year after closing an undisclosed pre-seed round. E4E Africa, a South African venture capital firm, led the round, which welcomed participation from other firms such as Strat-Tech, Next Chymia, Untapped Global and Codec Ventures and angels like Ashwin Ravichandran and Kanyi Maqubela. In a statement shared with TechCrunch, Qwili said it would use the investment for app…

Experts from the African Development Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have said that African countries need to mobilise $1.6 trillion within seven years to meet their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) pledges to resist climate change effects. The experts disclosed this during a panel discussion at the African Development Bank’s 2022 African Economic Outlook programme organised by the IMF in Washington on Monday. “African countries need to mobilise $1.6 trillion between 2022 and 2030 to meet…

Abel Selaocoe walks into a bar in King’s Cross, London, with a small suitcase and a large, curvaceous silver case. “I’m sorry, sir, but you’re going to have to put that in the cloakroom,” the waitress says. “I can’t – it’s my life,” Selaocoe exclaims, and gives her a winning smile. She tries to insist, and watches, bemused, as he steers both cases into a corner. It is about his life that we are here to talk – his extraordinary journey from growing up in a township outside Johannesburg to becoming a classical cellist of…

Dear Reader,A thrilling event took place in the summer of my sixteenth year. It involved Nelson Mandela, whose birthday was celebrated earlier this week.On an early morning in 1986, a group of us got into our Delhi Public School R K Puram school bus, and drove to the residence of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at 7, Race Course Road. We carried with us sheaves of paper — a signature campaign we had run, for the release of Nelson Mandela. Standing there, on the beautifully manicured lawns, in my school girl uniform, talking…

Electric vehicle firm Metro Africa Xpress (MAX) will seek to gain new territories in the African e-mobility industry, with about eight countries marked for entry next year after attaining a foothold in its base Nigeria and neighbouring Ghana. Uganda, Egypt and Cameroon had specific mention, Bloomberg said, in an interview held with Adetayo Bamiduro, the startup’s chief, a pointer to the likelihood the company could be leveraging those markets as strategic points of entry into the regions they each belong. The…

A culturally relevant mobile app designed to the needs of the members of a specific community can have a positive impact on their heart health, a new study by Mayo Clinic has established. According to the study, the researchers have found that a specifically tailored relevant mobile app designed to improve heart health among African Americans in faith communities has shown positive results. The results of the study demonstrate the potential of mobile technologies to positively influence health behaviours that are…

Last Friday, Barter, the consumer app of Africa’s most valued startup Flutterwave, told customers via email that they would not be able to access its virtual dollar card service from July 17. Hence, customers would be unable to create new virtual dollar cards, fund existing ones or make online and in-store payments and purchases with them. Subsequently, other African fintechs such as Eversend, Klasha, Busha, GetEquity and Payday sent identical messages giving various timelines between July 17 and 18. They attributed…

South Africa's Competition Commission, which has been probing online markets for over a year, has provisionally found that Google's paid search results distort competition, making it a "de facto monopolist" in general search. Governments around the world are strengthening the regulation of US tech giants that have become even more powerful during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are multiple investigations globally into their market positions, including in the United States and the European Union. The competition watchdog…

South Africa's Competition Commission, which has been probing online markets for over a year, has provisionally found that Google's paid search results distort competition, making it a "de facto monopolist" in general search.Governments around the world are strengthening the regulation of the US tech giants that have become even more powerful during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are multiple investigations globally into their market positions, including in the United States and the European Union.The competition watchdog…