Standing on an auction block in chains, an African man in good health could sell for over $1,200 in New Orleans in the decade before the US Civil War. A girl of nine or 10 could fetch $1,400 under the right market conditions. Pricing took into account a man’s strength or a girl’s ability to bear children for resale.
Across South Africa, it’s a common sight to see dozens of people standing on the side of roads with their fingers up—“going downtown”—to hail minibus taxis. Some 250,000 taxis travel routes within and between South Africa’s cities and townships, across provinces and even across the border, accounting for the vast majority of work and education trips by public transport.
It is no surprise that the African National Congress emerged victorious in South Africa’s general election this week, but the changing profile of its rivals shows that political landscape of Africa’s most advanced economy is beginning to transform radically, to the left and the right. Land is the center of both sides of the debate.
Sleeping in could be a sign of protest in South Africa’s on May 8 election. As the country heads to the polls 25 years after its first euphoric election, disillusionment has set in, particularly among those who are as old as South Africa’s democratic regime—the twenty somethings.
Caster Semenya rarely loses, yet her latest defeat could be career-ending. In typical style, the South African athlete has refused to concede the loss.
Vodacom and MTN used South Africa as a springboard into the rest of the continent, creating a market that turned them into global players. Established as South Africa experienced a major social shift at the end of apartheid, they were celebrated as the businesses that could propel the country forward. Now, it seems, their success has come at the expense of poor, mostly black, South Africans.
Among African governments and the hospitality sector, there’s a growing call to regulate the world’s biggest accommodation-sharing site: Airbnb.
When a politician is a musician, concerts are de facto rallies, even when they’re cancelled.
Soon audiences around the world will be able to stream the story of an all girl-team of African spies, who also happen to be four normal Zambian teens by day. This week, Netflix announced that it has picked up Mama K’s Team 4, an animated series as its latest African content.
H&M is rolling out its first African collaborative collection.
A month ago, Cyclone Idai crashed into Mozambique. So powerful was the storm, that drove into neighboring landlocked Mozambique and Malawi. The flood waters are receding, and the scale of the devastation is becoming clear.
Crime has forced Oppikoppi, one of South Africa’s most iconic annual music festivals, to scrap plans for its 25th anniversary gathering until next year.
Black students demanding change at the University of Cape Town set off a chain of events that showed a political strength not yet expressed among a generation of South African’s born after the fall of apartheid.
With its edgy galleries, artisanal shops, and popular Sunday market, the downtown Johannesburg district Maboneng was a symbol of how urban decay could be conquered through property development. A decade after it opened to the public, however, the architects of this at-times controversial turnaround have caved to some tough realities. Its future could now include a mall.
A waving flag could be a symbol of pride, or pain.
Mauritania is a country that is rarely on the global news agenda, and this seems to suit its leaders just fine. Now, the arrest of two bloggers is bringing unwanted attention to years of corruption and human rights abuses.
Xenophobic violence has erupted in South Africa again, in a cycle that is now being fueled by politicians ramping up anti-immigrant rhetoric in a country where foreigners are easy targets.
In the 19th century, large parts of present day Zambia was ruled by a fierce chief, whose kingdom was at least twice as large as any in the region. And when Portuguese slavers tried to subjugate the kingdom for its trade roots, the chief waged war and won.
The effects of Cyclone Idai will last for years, especially in Beira, the Mozambican city hardest hit by the storm that left more than 750 people dead.
Nearly two weeks after Cyclone Idai battered southeast Africa, leaving more than 750 dead, rescue operations are still overwhelmed with the scale of the unfolding disaster. They’re appealing to the world for help.
“Ebola is just a business.”
In South Africa, the flicker of a lightbulb or the sound of a buzzing appliance has become a cause for celebration, or at the very least, a sigh of relief. What it no longer invites is outrage.
Cyclone Idai has devastated the Mozambican city of Beira and turned it into an inland lake. The city of 500,000 people is at the epicenter of one of the worst natural disasters to hit southern Africa in decades.
South African politicians have become enamored with the “fourth industrial revolution”—a term often used to describe the intense technological transformation taking place in the world —turning to it as a campaign catchphrase ahead of the country’s May presidential elections.
