Lynsey Chutel

Girls have less access to mobile phones than boys, and when they do have access it’s complicated by patriarchy. A new study by non-profit Girl Effect and the Vodafone Foundation surveyed 3,000 adolescent girls and boys in 25 countries in south Asia, the United States and Africa and found that the increased risks and lower opportunities girls faced in real life were only replicated on their mobile phones.

It used to be that when you searched Africa on streaming services, you were likely to encounter the 1982 Toto earworm by the same name that just won’t disappear.

South Africa has yet another new finance minister—the fifth in as many years. The shuffling in a portfolio that desperately needs stability is due to the continued influence of a wealthy immigrant Indian family who hold much power in South Africa, even from outside the country.

For decades, the image of Ethiopia in the rest of the world’s imagination was one of poverty, a people entirely dependent on the aid from Western countries. Of course Ethiopia struggled under desperate real socio-economic issues, but that wasn’t all there was to the country, just like poverty isn’t all there is to poor people.

Younger sisters will always be little in their eyes of the older brothers, especially when your big brother is the Black Panther.

Following the examples of Uganda and Tanzania, Zambia announced in August that it plans to implement an internet tax. President Edgar Lungu’s government aims to tax over-the-top services like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Viber.

China and India are the big winners in South Africa’s newly relaxed rules on visas. Starting next month, most business travelers will be issued five-year, multiple-entry visas on arrival; business travelers from the BRICS countries, including China and India, could be granted 10-year, multiple-entry visas, without having to apply in person.

At New York Fashion Week this month, clothing made from cotton grown and handwoven in Burkina Faso and cut and sewn in Ghana featured on the ramp in a victory lap for sustainable fashion.

For only seven days, Kenyans will have the chance to watch Rafiki, the local film that has made waves around the world.

The digital revolution, often described as “leapfrogging,” has brought real change to Africa. In finance, communication, and entertainment, technology has allowed African innovators to skip a step, bypassing the West in significant ways as the continent tries to catch up to more industrialized parts of the world.

This year, scientists discovered the oldest drawing made by humans—a 73,000-year-old design of parallel and oblique lines. The red ochre on rock has value far beyond its historical significance—it shows that Africa was the site of complex syntactic language. It shows that humans were using a drawn language to make sense of their surroundings and create culture and symbolism.

With puffs of smoke, South Africans are celebrating the decriminalization of smoking weed at home. The country’s neighbors could see this as a signal to capitalize on a growing cannabis industry around southern Africa.

On the wall leading into the Sikale Wood Manufacturers in Lusaka’s industrial outskirts, there is a freshly painted sign that reads: “We shall make Good Furniture, at a profit if we can, at a loss if we must, but always Good Furniture.” It was painted only a day earlier, in anticipation of a visit by Chinese and Zambian businessmen looking for new deals between their two countries.

Seventy-three-thousand years ago, one of our earliest common ancestors drew a series of lines in red ochre crayon on a stone flake. This simple figure belies the complexity of our homo sapien ancestors, which modern humans are only beginning to understand.

Caster Semenya has smashed record after record, and yet she has had to face as much criticism as she has praise.

Video is everywhere on the internet, and yet for many Africans it’s all still a buffering frustration.

Everything Beyonce touches turns to gold, or at the very least profit. So when the megastar wore an African designer—twice!—she cemented the international status of a local brand.

Red suede veldskoene go with everything, rather surprisingly. They can be worn with flowing floral dresses, purple winter stockings, and tailored trousers and jeans—the skinnier the better. Originally designed for farmers and settlers who had to trudge for hours over harsh, dry scrubland of southern Africa, veldskoene (Afrikaans for “bush shoes”), are finding a new home in the cupboards of young urbanites in Africa and around the world.

The new school year comes with a new threat in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

UK prime minister Theresa May began her first official visit to Africa in Cape Town today (Aug. 28). It’s the first stop on a five-day tour in which she will also travel to Kenya and Nigeria to court trade partners on behalf of post-Brexit Britain.

Callers who thought they’d save money by using internet services will have to pay even more in Zambia. The country’s government has approved a tax on internet calls in order to protect large telcos, at the expense of already squeezed citizens.

When Jay-Z launched Tidal, the streaming service challenged the industry establishment. Now, Tidal comes to Africa at a time when musicians are challenging the socio-political establishment.

This week, false information alleging “genocide” against South Africa’s white farmers spread from a fringe white-rights group in the African nation to the the Twitter feed of the US president. The propaganda was a spark that should have quickly sputtered out. But in the current incendiary environments of the US, Australia, and parts of Europe, there’s no stopping racist rumors from catching fire.

Over the catchy beats of Afropop, artists are increasingly tapping into the frustrations of young Africans. Leaders, threatened by this musical momentum, are trying to silence it.