insert_link Africa Africa’s ageing leaders: succession race in Cameroon, Congo and Equatorial Guinea could destabilise the region By Serge Loungou, Université Omar Bongo (UOB) Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea is 82 and has been in power for 45 years. Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo, 79, has held on to power for 40 years. Cameroon’s Paul Biya is 91 and has been president for 42 years. Their extended tenures are largely due to a lack of constitutional limits on presidential age and terms […] todayAugust 23, 2024 10
insert_link Africa Sex sells in these Zimbabwe take-out chicken ads – showing how fragile masculinity is Mambo’s Chicken ads are the focus of a new study. Rustic/Getty Images By Gibson Ncube, Stellenbosch University Around the world, fast food advertising has been called out for sexualising and objectifying women’s bodies. In South Africa in 2019, for example, one fast food chain was castigated by advertising authorities for “the gratuitous use of sexualised women and sexual puns, with no product relevance”. At the same time, UK authorities […] todayAugust 23, 2024 13
insert_link Africa Africa’s mobility startups dethrone fintechs, scale new heights By Conrad Onyango, bird story agency Africa’s mobility startups are having a moment. For the first time, these small businesses in transport and logistics have dethroned Fintechs in attracting the most investor funding on the continent. In another historic first, mobility startups are beginning to explore cross-border rental trips as they look to capitalize on growing intra-Africa tourism fuelled by the removal of visa requirements by some […] todayAugust 22, 2024 12
insert_link Africa DRC adds new investor to power its deepwater port ambitions By Bonface Orucho, bird story agency The Port of Banana project, a deepwater project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has gained fresh momentum with the addition of a new investor, sparking renewed optimism for the port's long-awaited completion. The British International Investment has committed up to US$35 million alongside DP World for the strategic project expected to become a key driver of trade and economic […] todayAugust 22, 2024 9
insert_link Africa Africa’s off-grid solar sector is electrifying global investors By Bonface Orucho, bird story agency Africa’s off-grid solar sector continues to be a magnet for investment, with recent analysis from Africa: the Big Deal emphasizing its growing appeal to investors. Despite a general decline in start-up funding across the continent over the last two years, the industry remains a clear priority for both the social impact and regular investment community. According to Laura Fortes, the senior […] todayAugust 22, 2024 12
insert_link Africa TikTok Announces Industry-First Sub-Saharan Africa Safety Advisory Council TikTok is taking major steps to boost safety on its platform across Sub-Saharan Africa with the launch of its inaugural Safety Advisory Council and the expansion of its #SaferTogether community education campaign. By partnering with key stakeholders, including policymakers, members from academia, NGOs, and community leaders, TikTok aims to foster a collaborative approach to ensuring a secure and positive platform environment. This announcement was made at TikTok's Safety Summit […] todayAugust 22, 2024 14
insert_link Africa Sierra Leone’s women farmers use a custom called bora to access land – but it’s making them more vulnerable By Bankolay Theodore Turay, University of Lagos Bora – a type of thank you gift – is a Sierra Leonean custom of respect that is often used in relation to land. For instance, informal farmers pay bora to landowners to be able to farm on their land. But bora has changed over the years and is having a negative impact on women, who are responsible for much of […] todayAugust 21, 2024 7
insert_link Africa How do people choose what food to buy? Answers depend on what you ask – so we built a research tool for African countries People buying and selling food at a farmers’ market in Chad’s capital city, N'Djamena. Issouf Sanogo/AFP By Nomzamo N. Dlamini, University of Pretoria You’re in a shop or market and you’re buying food for the next day. How do you choose what to buy? Does it depend on how much you can spend, on what’s the healthiest, the most attractively packaged? Understanding this is an important part of […] todayAugust 20, 2024 7
insert_link Africa Uganda and the DRC conflict: the interests driving Kampala’s involvement By Kristof Titeca, University of Antwerp The ambiguous and often tumultuous relations between Uganda and neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have made headlines in recent months. In a July 2024 report, the UN Group of Experts on the DRC stated that Ugandan army and intelligence officials were providing active support to the M23 rebel group. The group, which is active in eastern DRC, was first defeated in […] todayAugust 20, 2024 15
