SPECIAL FEATURES - The African Mirror

Feb

11

2025

The fossil skull that rocked the world – 100 years later scientists are grappling with the Taung find’s complex colonial legacy

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

HERE'S how the story of the Taung Child is usually told: In 1924 an Australian anthropologist and anatomist, Raymond Dart, acquired a block of calcified sediment from a limestone quarry in South Africa. He painstakingly removed a fossil skull from this material. A few months later, on 7 February 1925, he published his description of what he argued was a new hominin species, Australopithecus africanus, in the journal Nature. It was nicknamed the Taung Child, a reference to the discovery site and its young age. The international scientific community rebuffed this hypothesis. They were looking outside Africa for human origins…

Feb

08

2025

By MULUGETA G BERH

Peace in Sudan: what it’s going to take

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

SUDAN, which included South Sudan up to 2011, has never known peace and stability since independence in 1956. The country’s instability stems from the absence of democratic rule; failure to manage its diversity; military coups; civil wars; and its fragmented and bloated security sector. Numerous political processes to mediate the peaceful resolution of conflicts started in the first decade of independence and continue today. None of these have delivered anything. The earliest peace efforts – in 1965 – sought to internally resolve the country’s north-south divide, which eventually triggered Africa’s longest civil war. Since then, there have been at least…

Feb

07

2025

By GUY LAMB

Violent crime in South Africa happens mostly in a few hotspots: police resources should focus there – criminologist

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

CRIME researchers use murder (or homicide) rate per 100,000 as a crude measure of the general level of violent interpersonal crime globally. According to the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime, South Africa’s murder rate of 45 per 100,000 (2023/24) is the second highest for countries that publish crime data. The South African Police Service crime data shows that levels of attempted murder, armed robbery and robberies at homes have soared over the past 10 years. Other categories of violent crime, such as assault and sexual violence, also remain high. High crime rates have had considerable negative effects on…

Feb

06

2025

By MAMOKETE MODIBA and SAMIKSHA SINGH

South Africa’s food poisoning crisis: the government’s response isn’t dealing with the real issues

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

THE South African government declared a national disaster towards the end of 2024 in response to an outbreak of food-borne illnesses. The outbreak had led to the tragic deaths of over 20 children and hospitalisation of hundreds. Investigations by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases attributed the outbreak to hazardous pesticides such as Terbufos and Aldicarb. The pesticides, used in agriculture, have infiltrated the informal market as unregulated “street pesticides” for rat control, resulting in food contamination. In response, the government announced several measures. One was that all food handling outlets, including informal retailers known as spaza shops, had to…

Feb

05

2025

By The African Mirror

Activists are warning of a return to the Jim Crow era in America. But who or what was Jim Crow?

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

SINCE becoming president, Donald Trump has issued a record number of executive orders. Several aim to dismantle federally funded initiatives based on the idea that “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) are goals worth achieving. In response, many commentators have warned Trump may be dragging the United States back to the dark days of the “pre-civil rights” Jim Crow era. But who or what was Jim Crow? The term Jim Crow refers to the long period in US history when black Americans could not exercise the same rights of citizenship as white Americans. “Jim Crow” segregation began when slavery ended in…

Feb

04

2025

By JABULANI SHABA and SANDRA SWART

Rituals, rites and rumours: how women claim power in Zimbabwe’s informal gold mines

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

IN Zimbabwe they say, Hanzi bhande rinonzvenga vakadzi vakapinda mumigoghi (The gold belt will disappear if women go into the underground mine). Many men on artisanal or small-scale gold mining sites are uncomfortable working with women in their syndicates because of this commonly held cultural belief, that women “pollute” the sacredness of the mining space. Yet women remain a lively, if sidelined, community in the country’s growing mining sector. By 2000 there were more than 500,000 people working in artisanal and small-scale mining in Zimbabwe. By 2018 it was estimated that number could be up to 1.5 million. But this…

Feb

01

2025

By The African Mirror

The wind beneath the Mustang Dark Horse’s wings

MOTORING

JOVIAL RANTAO IN the heart of Ford's engineering sanctuary stands a marvel of modern technology – a chamber where the future of automotive excellence takes shape. Here, in the Rolling Road Wind Tunnel, the legendary Mustang Dark Horse was born not just from steel and engineering prowess, but from the very air itself. Picture this: A massive chamber where artificial hurricanes dance with precision at speeds up to 200 mph, swirling around a mechanical beast mounted on what amounts to the world's most sophisticated treadmill. Below the vehicle, five synchronized belts spin in perfect harmony, recreating the intimate dance between…

Feb

01

2025

By The African Mirror

Finalists for South Africa’s Car of the Year unveiled

MOTORING NEWS

IN the heart of South Africa, a battle of mechanical titans is about to unfold. The air is thick with anticipation as seventeen of the world's finest automobiles prepare to compete in what has become the Olympics of the automotive world – the 2025 South African Car of the Year (COTY) competition. From an initial field of 29 contenders, these seventeen warriors have emerged, each bearing the dreams and ambitions of their creators. The stage is set at Zwartkops Raceway in Tshwane, where under the unforgiving African sun, these mechanical marvels will soon face their ultimate test. "The prestige has…

Jan

31

2025

By AWINO OKECH

Femicide in Kenya: William Ruto has set up a task force – feminist scholar explains its flaws

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

GENDER-BASED violence is a major challenge in Kenya, which has recorded a significant rise in deaths of women and girls in recent years. In January 2024, a coalition of organisations across the East African nation organised multi-city public marches to call for government action against these deaths. A year later, President William Ruto established a 42-member task force to address gender-based violence. What is its potential to lead to real change for women and girls? Feminist and security studies professor Awino Okech explores the issue. What do you make of the Kenyan government’s response to gender-based violence? Language matters, in…

Jan

30

2025

By CAROLINE FOWLER

Rereading Rembrandt: how the slave trade helped establish the golden age of Dutch painting

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS, EDITORS CHOICE

THE so-called golden age of Dutch painting in the 1600s coincided with an economic boom that had a lot to do with the transatlantic slave trade. But how did the slave trade shape the art market in the Netherlands? And how is it reflected in the paintings of the time? This is the subject of a new book called Slavery and the Invention of Dutch Art by art historian Caroline Fowler. We asked about her study. What was Dutch art about before slavery and what was the golden age? The earliest paintings that would be called Dutch were predominantly religious.…