The Conversation: In-depth analysis, research, news and ideas from leading academics and researchers.

Drawings of symbols like stars, eyes and a triangle

Devil worship, muti and murder: what’s behind the growth of occult gangs in South Africa?

Dr Ashwill Ramon Phillips, University of the Free State

TikTok users in Ghana and Zimbabwe enjoy making fun of government – why it can have a downside

Jacob Nyarko, University of Cape Coast and Oswelled Ureke, University of Johannesburg

A hand holding a phone and some pills in the palm of another hand

New clues from 2 million-year-old tooth enamel tell us more about an ancient relative of humans

Palesa P. Madupe, University of Copenhagen; Claire Koenig, University of Copenhagen, and Ioannis Patramanis, University of Copenhagen

A fossilised human-like skull with teeth

Africa’s plants: a database project has recorded 65,000 species – and is still growing

Cyrille Chatelain, Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de Genève (CJBG)

Egypt needs more drinkable water – how windy coastal resorts could help

Thokozani Majozi, University of the Witwatersrand

A blue sea in front of ancient brown buildings with minarets and domes

Sacred sites in South Africa can protect natural heritage and culture: here’s how

Ndidzulafhi Innocent Sinthumule, University of Johannesburg

A graphic of a shape of a face filled with polluting industry, a long nose and then another face, the public face, is green and grassy

Can you trust climate information? How and why powerful players are misleading the public

Klaus Bruhn Jensen, University of Copenhagen and Semahat Ece Elbeyi, University of Copenhagen

West Africa terror: why attacks on military bases are rising – and four ways to respond

Olayinka Ajala, Leeds Beckett University

Man in military uniform outside an armoured vehicle on a road

Cape Town’s sewage treatment isn’t coping: scientists are worried about what the city is telling the public

Lesley Green, University of Cape Town; Cecilia Yejide Ojemaye, University of Cape Town; Jo Barnes, Stellenbosch University; Leslie Petrik, University of the Western Cape; Nikiwe Solomon, University of Cape Town, and Vanessa Farr, Sheffield Hallam University

Alcohol and colonialism: the curious story of the Bulawayo beer gardens

Maurice Hutton, University of Manchester

An abandoned structure, a large building with "Mathonisa Beer Garden" painted on it and a wall with an advert for "Ingwebu" beer painted on it.

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A young boy walks along a road, holding a red flag, alongside a herd of cattle

Child labour numbers rise in homes where adults are jobless – South African study

Derek Yu, University of the Western Cape and Simbarashe Murozvi, University of the Western Cape

A man in suit and tie, with his hand raised above his head. Behind him other men raise clenched fists.

Samora Machel’s vision for Mozambique didn’t survive: what has taken its place?

Luca Bussotti, Universidade Técnica de Moçambique (UDM)

Coups in west Africa have five things in common: knowing what they are is key to defending democracy

Salah Ben Hammou, Rice University

Eco labels in South Africa don’t do the job: how to help customers make informed choices

Miemie Struwig, Nelson Mandela University and Storm Watson, Nelson Mandela University

German language label on a pack of minced meat

Fun with fossils: South African kids learn a whole lot more about human evolution from museum workshops

Shaw Badenhorst, University of the Witwatersrand

Men and family planning: studies from 23 African countries reveal gaps in what we know

Tosin Oni, Obafemi Awolowo University

A woman talking to a group of men. She is holding a blister pack of pills.

Climate change has doubled the world’s heatwaves: how Africa is affected

Joyce Kimutai, Imperial College London

A city skyline against an orange sky with a bright yellow sun in the background

Uganda’s ride-hailing motorbike service promised safety – but drivers are under pressure to speed

Rich Mallett, ODI Global

Congested road with vehicles and motorcycles

How far is your closest hospital or clinic? Public health researchers explain why Africa needs up-to-date health facility databases

Peter M Macharia, Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp and Emelda Okiro, KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme

People outside a single storey building, some with bicycles. Palm trees in the background.

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Development finance

Row of male and female symbolic figures, one of them holding a flag

Tax season in South Africa: the system is designed to tackle inequality – how it falls short

Nadine Riedel, University of Münster and Ida Zinke, University of Münster

Africa’s development banks are being undermined: the continent will pay the price

Danny Bradlow, University of Pretoria and Lisa Sachs, Columbia University

A man appears to draw the outline of the continent of Africa, using a light pen

African finance ministers shouldn’t be making bond deals: how to hand over the job to experts

Misheck Mutize, University of Cape Town

Illustration of a globe in a puddle which looks like a banknote

Are Chinese investors grabbing Zambian land? Study finds that’s a myth

Yuezhou Yang, London School of Economics and Political Science

Woman stretching to grasp a tree branch on which red berries are clustered

African countries shouldn’t have to borrow money to fix climate damage they never caused – economist

Carlos Lopes, University of Cape Town

A protest of about 100 people holding placards stating "Honor climate finance pledges" and "Droughts, Floods, Hunger, Displacement are the new trend in Africa!"

In the news

Somalia at 65: what’s needed to address its dismal social development indicators

Ali A. Abdi, University of British Columbia

Students in a classroom, writing in books on desks

DRC and Rwanda sign a US-brokered peace deal: what are the chances of its success?

Jonathan Beloff, King's College London

Three men and a woman standing behind a seated man who is speaking and holding up a photo of himself and two Africans, a man and a woman

Ghana and India: Narendra Modi’s visit rekindles historical ties

Pius Siakwah, University of Ghana

Highways to hell: west Africa’s road networks are the preferred battleground for terror groups

Olivier Walther, University of Florida; Alexander John Thurston, University of Cincinnati , and Steven Radil, United States Air Force Academy

Vehicles parked on an unpaved roads, with soldiers in uniform in and around them

Movies, Music & Reviews

In the foreground, a bust of a woman with painted eyes, broken at the neck, with visitors to a museum passing in the background.

Queen Hatshepsut’s statues were destroyed in ancient Egypt – new study challenges the revenge theory

Jun Yi Wong, University of Toronto

Feya Faku as I knew him – a tribute to the great South African jazz trumpeter

Darius Brubeck, University of KwaZulu-Natal

A black and white photo of a bald-headed African man blowing into a trumpet, his eyes closed.

Ruth First and activist research: the legacy of a South African freedom fighter

Saleem Badat, University of the Free State and Vasu Reddy, University of the Free State

An elegant woman sits at a table and, with a challenging half smile, points a finger at an African woman in a headpiece sitting with her.

Detty December started as a Nigerian cultural moment. Now it’s spreading across the continent – and minting money

Nnamdi O. Madichie, Nnamdi Azikiwe University; Motshedisi Mathibe, University of Pretoria, and NobuLali Dangazele, University of Pretoria

Brightly dressed female dancers in gold and pink parade down a street, dancers smiling broadly.

Netflix gives African film a platform – but the cultural price is high

Wunpini Fatimata Mohammed, Cornell University

A woman looks angrily at something off camera, arms folded, a group behind her looking at her.

Kwame Akoto-Bamfo: the Ghanaian artist using work about slavery to find justice and healing

Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann, Rutgers University

A group of women and girls on a dirt road, dressed in white traditional garments. They stand in rows, some raising their arms.

Shaka iLembe: finally, a TV series on the Zulu king that’s true to language and culture

Bongephiwe Dlamini-Myeni, University of Zululand

A muscular man stands in front of a reed and wood homestead wearing armbands and a codpiece of animal hair, beads across his chest.

Louis Moholo-Moholo, a lion of South African jazz who used his drums to find freedom

Gwen Ansell, University of Pretoria

An older man smiles broadly as he sits playing on a drum kit of bright red drums.

Ngũgi wa Thiong’o and the African literary revolution

Simon Gikandi, Princeton University

An older African man with a black scarf around his neck looks directly to camera against shocking pink background.

G20

Food trade regimes harm people and the planet: how the G20 can drive improvements

Florian Kroll, University of the Western Cape and Albert Makochekanwa, University of Zimbabwe

Men stand in a field where a crop is growing.

Africa’s power pools: what the G20 can do to help countries share electricity

David Phaho, University of the Witwatersrand and Steven Matome Mathetsa, University of the Witwatersrand

Long lines of electricity pylons and wire stretch out across a desert landscape

The G20: how it works, why it matters and what would be lost if it failed

Danny Bradlow, University of Pretoria

A man speaking at a podium, also seen on a big screen behind him. People seated at a long table are turning to look at him.

African countries are bad at issuing bonds, so debt costs more than it should: what needs to change

Misheck Mutize, University of Cape Town

Display board with numbers expressed as percentages, and arrows

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Research highlights

A swarm of bats at the mouth of a stone cave.

How does Marburg virus spread between species? Young Ugandan scientist’s photos give important clues

Alexander Richard Braczkowski, Griffith University

Decades of South African research reveal key strategies to reduce water contamination in fruit and veg

Loandi Richter-Mouton, University of Pretoria and Lise Korsten, University of Pretoria

A row of green leafy plants in a field, with irrigation pipes sprinkling water

Toxic fungus from King Tutankhamun’s tomb yields cancer-fighting compounds – new study

Justin Stebbing, Anglia Ruskin University

Tutankhamun's golden burial mask on black background.

Humans and animals can both think logically − but testing what kind of logic they’re using is tricky

Olga Lazareva, Drake University

Rodent climbing the rungs of a small, colorful abacus

Ocean currents can generate electricity – and our study shows Africa’s seas have some of the strongest

James H. VanZwieten Jr., Florida Atlantic University; Gabriel Alsenas, Florida Atlantic University; Mahsan Sadoughipour, Florida Atlantic University, and Yufei Tang, Florida Atlantic University

A view of the ocean underwater with currents close to the surface

Kenya Gen Z protest

Kenya police brutality – it will take more than laws and public anger to change behaviour

Oscar Gakuo Mwangi, Pwani University

Kenya’s police still kill with impunity – what needs to be done to stop them

Kamau Wairuri, Edinburgh Napier University

Armed police officers running on a road with a crowd of people behind them

Kenya’s brutal police have been exposed again – why the system fails people

Douglas Lucas Kivoi, The Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA)

Four men on their knees on a street holding a flag with black, white, red and green stripes with a cloud of smoke behind them

Kenyan police use excessive force because they’re serving political elites, not the public – policy analyst

Kamau Wairuri, Edinburgh Napier University

A man dressed in brown and green fatigues and wearing a helmet kicking his foot into a cloud of smoke.

TC Afrique

Financement de l'agriculture : un modèle économique identifie la meilleure combinaison pour 10 pays africains

Margaret Chitiga-Mabugu, University of Pretoria and Ramos Emmanuel Mabugu, Sol Plaatje University

Comment l’Afrique de l’Ouest est devenue un terrain d’expansion pour la diplomatie turque

Issouf Binaté, Université Alassane Ouattara de Bouaké

Bénin : pourquoi les djihadistes ciblent les parcs nationaux

Papa Sow, The Nordic Africa Institute

Fin d’un catholicisme à sens unique ? L’Afrique post-François veut se faire entendre

Stan Chu Ilo, DePaul University

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