Healthcare in Africa has long focused on communicable diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS and Ebola, as the region lurches from one epidemic to another. Increased development has led to better responses to these diseases, and an improved lifestyle for many on the continent.
South Africa’s race for the presidency has begun and two of the front-runners are women.
On Jan. 13, The Guardian published a lengthy report alleging the presence of a “security backdoor” in messaging platform WhatsApp. According to story, a WhatsApp security flaw allows Facebook to intercept encrypted chats, and could be used by government agencies to snoop on users’ messages.
One of South Africa’s largest banks may have to pay back a questionable bailout it received during the apartheid era. A leaked preliminary report by the public protector, South Africa’s constitutional watchdog, shows that Absa bank possibly unduly benefitted from corrupt apartheid-era transactions, the Mail and Guardian newspaper (paywall) reported on Jan. 13.
Just as it seemed the Zika virus was under control around the world, Angolan health officials confirmed on Jan. 9 the country’s first two cases of the disease.
The British government has stopped funding an aid program aimed at empowering Ethiopian girls after a concerted campaign by tabloid newspaper and Conservative party politicians to cut foreign aid spending.
From the fancy French-style cafes to the fancy malls of capital city Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has been a picture of economic stability and rapid growth in recent years. But the political instability that returned to the West African country this month could easily see it lose its position as Africa’s fastest growing economy.
South Africa enjoys 2,500 kilometers (nearly 1,600 miles) of coastline, from the desert that rolls into the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the lush green dunes along the Indian Ocean in the east. But these beaches are also political spaces.
The descendants of the people massacred in Germany’s forgotten genocide 110 years ago are suing the present-day Berlin government. Namibia’s Herero and Nama people filed a class action lawsuit in a New York court on Jan. 5, demanding damages for the first genocide of the 20th century.
With the consequences of Brexit and an increasingly inward-looking United States still unfolding, 2017 is likely to be an economically tumultuous year. Some African countries, however, could see sustainable growth beyond the usual narrative of Africa alternatively “rising” and “reeling.”
Africa’s oldest liberation party learned this week just how irreverent the social media generation could be. Ahead of its 105th birthday celebrations, the African National Congress invited South Africans to share a photo or video of the party’s work in their constituency.
As president Joseph Kabila clings to power, the Democratic Republic of Congo is once again teetering on the brink of violent disaster. In the west, dozens of people have been killed in clashes between security forces and anti-Kabila protestors. In the east, armed militias are fighting for control while the central government is distracted.
If South Africa’s non-fiction bestseller list is an indication of the zeitgeist, the country has had an anxious year. The nation’s bookstands reflect a country trying to make sense of a tumultuous political environment, high crime statistics, and an unreliable power grid.
Correction: The original version of this story referred to the West African eCFA using blockchain-based technology. It does not.
It was the night before Christmas, and I had finally given up. I had clicked refresh over and over, and still there was no change on the delivery page: my Christmas gifts would only arrive Feb. 2.
Cancer is becoming more common across Africa, but the continent’s doctors and policy makers are barely equipped to provide adequate treatment. New cancer cases are expected to double by 2030 to around 1.3 million, according to an American Cancer Society (ACS) study (PDF). If national cancer treatment strategies aren’t fixed, only 10% of patients will receive treatment, including basic pain medication.
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s leader Joseph Kabila was supposed to leave office on Dec. 19, the date his presidential mandate officially ended. Instead, he is clinging to power but Congolese want him out. They’ve take to the streets in DRC’s major cities, protesting what opposition leaders are calling a coup d’état. At least 20 people have already died in the clashes between police and demonstrators, the United Nations said on Tuesday, Dec. 20.
South Africa’s post-apartheid fantasy of the Rainbow Nation seems unable to survive the unfiltered reality of social media.
Zimbabwe’s ruling party has confirmed that president Robert Mugabe will be its candidate for the 2018 presidential election. That means that the 92-year-old Mugabe will run for re-election at 94, and a win would put him in power until age 99. He has been the only leader Zimbabwe has known since independence in 1980.
Shoprite, Africa’s largest retailer, looks set to be acquired by Steinhoff, the furniture group that wants to be the continent’s IKEA. On Dec. 14, the two companies’ largest shareholders issued a cautionary notice, announcing the creation of an entity called Retail Africa.
Africa may not feature much on president-elect Donald Trump’s political map, but its oil reserves have been a feature on that of Rex Tillerson, the ExxonMobil CEO who will become next US secretary of state. Africans watching Trump’s cabinet pick may be concerned with Tillerson’s track record on the continent of helping support regimes of some of the continent’s strongmen in pursuit of oil deals.
South Africans journalists and former executives have been testifying this week about political interference, intimidation and espionage within the towers of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). It’s often been more intriguing than anything the broadcaster airs on television or radio.
A new list of the richest South Africans out this week reveals Atul Gupta, close associate of President Jacob Zuma, has become the richest person of color in South Africa. Rather than celebrated as an achievement, the ranking has riled South Africans who accuse the president of patronage and corruption.
Always towering among the tree tops, moving languidly through the bush, giraffes are usually the first animals spotted on safari. And yet, the world’s tallest land animal has become among the most rare, now facing extinction.
