South Africa’s embattled former president Jacob Zuma will stand trial for the corruption allegations that have hung over him and the country since the 1990s.
The listeria outbreak in South Africa has been met with panic, memes, and bad public relations.
Close on the heels of its corporate nemesis Apple, Samsung has also moved to secure a cobalt supply in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
At the end of the short montage announcing their “On The Run II” tour, Jay-Z and Beyoncé are seated on a motorbike adorned with a bull’s long-horned skull.
One of Africa’s most prominent female leaders is embroiled in a scandal over her credit card.
For years, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi struggled to find a publisher for her book because it was deemed “too African.” Her refusal to compromise on her “proper, proper” African novel has now paid off.
Nicknamed the “Mexico City Policy,” president Donald Trump’s Global Gag rule has gone much further, restricting access to reproductive health to women around the world, especially in Africa.
Namibia could have its first cobalt mine in 2020, making it the latest country to get in on the world’s insatiable need for rechargeable batteries.
South Africa’s land—still largely owned by the white minority—is to be redistributed to black owners.
South Africans now have reason to fear some of their favorite foods.
Days ago, desperate African migrants painted their faces white in the hope that Israeli officials would treat them with more humanity.
Tutu, the iconic Nigerian portrait that was lost for decades, has sold for a record £1,205,000 (about $1.68 million)—more than four times the highest estimate.
Lubumbashi, DR Congo
South Africa’s new president calls the current optimism experienced in the country as “a new dawn.” It’s a sentiment the country’s volatile currency seems to have embraced, pushing below 12 rand to $1 when Cyril Ramaphosa took over the ruling party. The currency, which has risen by some 15% in the last couple of months, maintains its newfound confidence as Ramaphosa became the country’s fifth president and brought back finance minister Nhlanhla Nene—whose 2015 axing first triggered the rand’s downward spiral.
As if South Africa’s crime rate wasn’t already a problem, the country also has the highest reported rate of economic crime in the world.
Cape Town’s Day Zero, the day when the city’s taps are turned off, has been pushed out all the way to July 9, from April 16 to May 11. That should be good news, city officials now risk coming off as alarmist.
When Lupita Nyong’o told every child their dreams were valid, she meant it.
Apple’s reported move to buy cobalt directly from miners could bring efficiency to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s troubled mining sector, but it will likely only muddle an already murky field.
The following conversation (which contains more than a few spoilers) took place in a Slack channel for Quartz Africa correspondents, Abdi Latif Dahir in Nairobi, Yomi Kazeem in Lagos and Lynsey Chutel in Johannesburg.
South African regulators have classified a touching gay love story as R-rated, “effectively labeling the film as pornography and pulling it out of cinemas,” the film’s producers said.
Wakanda may not have been real, but the Black Panther costume designer Ruth Carter and Hannah Beachler, the film’s production designer, both drew on very real tribes and cultures to represent the various peoples that form part of the nation of Wakanda.
For nearly two weeks, South Africans watched out for any clues that would tell them just who was in charge of their country. They watched as motorcades of luxury cars and blue-light security vehicles darted between official homes. They eagerly shared leaks over WhatsApp from closed-door meetings of the African National Congress. Press briefings and public statements were cloaked in double-speak that were clearly meant for other politicians, not the people. And the people responded in hilarious memes.
Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther embraced Africa in set, costume, language and post-colonial narrative. Now African audiences are rewarding these efforts by contributing to the global hype and box-office sales.
In what is probably one of the world’s most watched non-sports live broadcasts, Chinese state television thought blackface was a fitting tribute to Sino-African relations.
