A comics startup in Nigeria is creating African superheroes. The characters have familiar backstories for local and international comic fans writes Lily Kuo. The startup is part of a renaissance of made-in-Africa music, literature, and art that resonate beyond the continent.
Tanzania is one of the least electrified countries in Africa. Up to 75% of east Africa’s second largest economy’s lives without power. In rural areas the situation is worse, with only a 4% electrification rate, data from the International Energy Agency shows.
Africa’s second most populous country—and one of the fastest growing economies on the continent—is in the midst of what is said to be its worst drought in almost half a century.
There are now more than 4 million people in Kenya with smartphones, and increasingly, access to mobile apps is becoming a central issue in how these users engage with their devices. According to a December study of Kenyans in urban areas by research firm SOKO insight, 85% of respondents have at least 5 apps on their phones. But while 30% of respondents say app availability is one of the more important features of their mobile devices, a significant number aren’t fans of local platforms.
Some important elections took place in Africa in 2015. Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia and Burkina Faso (despite some stops and starts) all saw democratic transitions of power. No wonder, then, that more than half of the continent believe that they live in democracies.
Egypt suspended the use of Facebook’s Free Basics platform to its three million users in the country yesterday (Dec. 30). There was no immediate explanation as to why authorities in the north African country decided to shut down the service, according to the Associated Press. In a statement to AP, Facebook said that it was working to “resolve the situation” to restore the platform.
Two years after the first case of Ebola was detected, triggering the worst outbreak of the virus in history, Guinea, the country where the outbreak began, has finally been declared free of the disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared on Tuesday (Dec. 29).
Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, a former banker and one-time prime minister, was sworn in as Burkina Faso’s new president on Tuesday (Dec. 29), the first time that the country has had an electoral transfer of power in almost three decades. Kabore won over 53% of the vote in an election held last month, defeating former finance minister Zephirin Diabre.
Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni is hosting Burundi peace talks today (Dec. 28) in Entebbe to find a political solution to the escalating violence that has claimed hundreds of lives. Among those expected to attend are representatives from the government, civil society groups, and opposition parties.
Each year, basketball fans all over the world vote for the starters in the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) All-Star Game–meant to showcase the best players of the season. But the results of this year’s vote shows once again why fans may not the best judges of the All-Star lineup.
New rules to restrict lion trophy imports into the United States may cut South Africa’s revenue from hunting lions in captivity in half, according to the country’s Professional Hunters Association (PHASA).
A truck off-loading butane gas at an industrial site in the southeastern Nigerian town of Nnewi exploded and killed an estimated 100 victims, including people nearby who had been queuing for cooking gas in time for Christmas Day celebrations, local media and the Associated Press report. The office of the president confirmed the incident.
Close allies of Algeria’s long serving leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika fear that a “soft coup” led by the president’s brother Said may be underway in the North African country, following a series of unusual decisions they say are out of character for the ailing president, the New York Times is reporting.
Pravin Gordhan, South Africa’s new finance minister, is on a mission to reassure investors that the country is serious about reigning in public spending.
Eleven African countries are moving ahead with an ambitious pan-African effort in the Sahel-Saharan region of the continent to protect arable land from the encroaching Sahara desert—by planting trees.
An attempted militant attack on Monday (Dec. 21) on a bus heading to Mandera, a small town in northeast Kenya on the border with Somalia, was foiled after Muslim passengers refused to comply with the attackers’ demands that they identify Christians amongst them and thereby saving them from almost certain death.
Burundi has rejected the decision by the African Union (AU) to send in troops to the east African country saying the presence of such a force in the country will be perceived as an “invasion and occupation force.”
The killing of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe earlier this year by Walter Palmer, a US dentist, caused a global outcry against the hunting for sport of the animal.
Rwandans headed to the polls on Friday (Dec. 18) to vote on a constitutional amendment that would allow president Paul Kagame to run for office again. The amendment is expected to pass, paving the way for Kagame to stay in power for seven more years and ushering in new rules for a leader’s time in office—five year individual terms with a maximum two terms in office.
By all accounts, president Jacob Zuma’s decision to change his finance minister twice in the space of a week rattled investors. While the reappointment of Pravin Gordhan has calmed the markets for now, Zuma’s unpredictable behavior continues to impact negatively on Africa’s second largest economy.
As Africa’s growth continues to attract investors, both foreign and domestic, a key challenge has emerged—a lack of top executive talent to take over the jobs that these investments create, according to a recent survey from Russell Reynolds Associates, a global headhunting outfit.
For a while now, media companies in Africa have been betting that the continent’s growing consumer class will pay for their premium pay-TV services. And for a while now, it’s seemed like a decent bet. Revenue in the pay-TV market across sub-Saharan Africa has nearly doubled since 2010, topping $3.5 billion last year, and by some estimates could reach $6.2 billion by 2020.
The drama that has enveloped Africa’s second-largest economy over the past week shows no signs of letting up.
Until yesterday, few people had heard of David Van Rooyen. But he is suddenly one of the most talked about figures in African finance after South African president Jacob Zuma controversially appointed him the country’s new finance chief. Van Rooyen is replacing the widely respected Nhlanhla Nene, who was abruptly dumped less than two years into his tenure late on Wednesday (Dec. 9) for reasons that remain mysterious.
