SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS - The African Mirror

Sep

19

2025

Reviving South Africa’s grasslands: Eastern Cape villagers explain the challenges they face

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

SOUTH Africa’s Eastern Cape province has several million hectares of open land in rural areas, not privately owned but held in trust by the state on behalf of communities. The people who live there use it mainly for grazing livestock, subsistence farming, and sometimes hunting. A common misperception is that the grassy, rolling hills will take care of themselves. But these rangelands degrade for many reasons, making them unusable for the small-scale and landless farmers who need communal land for their animals. Agricultural scholar Mhlangabezi Slayi researches practical ways of preserving rangeland ecosystems so that farmers can continue to graze…

Sep

18

2025

By WILL WORLEY

Mozambique: A case study of growing need and global aid cut confusion

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

WHEN unprecedented aid budget cuts were announced by the United States and other major donors earlier this year, concerns were raised about where the reductions in finance and operational capacity would hit hardest and fastest. The months since have been marked by torturous deprioritisation efforts that have been shrouded in mystery and confusion. In this article, we try to unpack the impact on humanitarian responses in one setting, Mozambique, and work out what it might signal elsewhere. This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian.By Will Worley The UN-led system has cut the number of people it aims to…

Sep

17

2025

By SALLEK YAKS MUSA

Nigeria’s use of soldiers for civilian tasks comes with serious costs – how to prevent this

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

NIGERIANS have experienced what it means for their government to be controlled by the military. From independence in 1960 until 1999, the country was under democratic rule for only about seven years. Since then, the military has taken a back seat in the affairs of the state. But in 2020, then President Muhammadu Buhari deployed the military to enforce restrictions imposed to manage the COVID pandemic. This was not unusual. The armed forces have long been used in Nigeria for roles normally assigned to the police, from quelling protests to responding to floods. In more than 30 states, troops were…

Sep

16

2025

By NICKY FALKOF

Satanic panic: 5 ‘occult’ crimes that gripped South Africa’s imagination

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

YOU might think South Africa was awash with occult crime if you scrolled through the country’s tabloids, social media and even mainstream newspapers. Criminal acts performed by witches, satanists and sangomas (indigenous knowledge practitioners), as well as threats from supernatural forces, loom large in South Africa’s collective thinking. From demon-possessed killers to charismatic cultists, it sometimes seems like the country is at war with evil itself. As a media studies scholar, I’ve written extensively about white fears of the occult in South Africa. But it’s not only white people who exhibit this anxiety. My new book The Devil Made Me…

Sep

11

2025

By ROULA INGLESI-LOTZ; ANNA MARIA OOSTHUIZEN; GETRUDE NJOKWE; HEINRICH BOHLMANN; HELEN CABALU; JESSIKA BOHLMANN; JULIAN INCHAUSPE; MARGARET CHITIGA-MABUGU; and NGUYEN TUAN KHUONG TRUONG

Gender equality is the goal, but how to get there? Case study of South Africa and Australia shows that context matters

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

IT will take an estimated 131 years for the world to achieve gender parity, defined as equal access, opportunities and outcomes for women and men across economic, political, educational and health dimensions. That’s according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2023. Most of us alive today will never see it happen. Gender parity matters because women make up more than half of the world’s population, and excluding them from full participation has economic and social costs. Closing the gap is not only a matter of fairness. It’s a condition for sustained growth, innovation and societal wellbeing. The…

Sep

10

2025

By JOHN MUKUM MBAKU

Ethiopia’s mega dam has taken 14 years to build: what it means for the Nile’s 11 river states and why it’s so controversial

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

IN April 2011, Ethiopia began construction of Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), on the Blue Nile River. The dam is expected to generate more than 6,000 megawatts of electricity, effectively transforming Ethiopia into the continent’s largest power exporter. The dam affects 11 countries, two downstream and nine upstream. Addis Ababa completed construction of the US$4 billion-plus project in July 2025, mainly with funds sourced from Ethiopians at home and in the diaspora, with an official launch on 9 September 2025. John Mukum Mbaku, who has researched the governance of the Nile’s waters, explains the dam’s…

Sep

09

2025

By JONATHAN BELOFF

Joseph Kabila is on trial for treason in the DRC. What the case against the former president is all about

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

THE Congolese military court has accused former president Joseph Kabila of treason, corruption, war crimes and supporting the March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group. During court proceedings that began in July 2025, arguments were made for utilising the death penalty against Kabila, who was in power from 2001 to 2019. The trial is going on in Kabila’s absence as the threat of arrest led him into exile. The former president had fought against the M23’s first iteration in 2012-2013, as well as its predecessor, the National Congress for the Defence of the People, which fought the DRC government between 2006…

Sep

08

2025

By MELCHISEDEK CHÉTIMA

They left Boko Haram, now the real struggle begins at home in Cameroon

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

ON a humid evening in early July in the village of Mémé, in Cameroon’s Far North Region, a small group of villagers sat in silence around a flickering fire. Their faces were tight with unease. Among them was a young woman whose brother had just returned after five years in the grip of Boko Haram. This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian. By Melchisedek Chétima Some villagers averted their eyes. Others whispered behind cupped hands. Can he be trusted? Will he bring the violence back? Their questions were not unkind. They were born of fear – memories of…

Sep

05

2025

By ADELINE MOREZ JACOBS

We decoded the oldest genetic data from an Egyptian, a man buried around 4,500 years ago – what it told us

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

A group of scientists has sequenced the genome of a man who was buried in Egypt around 4,500 years ago. The study offers rare insight into the genetic ancestry of early Egyptians and reveals links to both ancient North Africa and Mesopotamia, which includes modern-day Iraq and parts of Syria, Turkey and Iran. Egypt’s heat and terrain made it difficult for such studies to be conducted, but lead researcher Adeline Morez Jacobs and her team made a breakthrough. We spoke to her about the challenges of sequencing ancient remains, the scientific advances that made this discovery possible, and why this…

Sep

03

2025

By SELMA UUGWANGA; AMBER GAYLE THALMAYER, and LUZELLE NAUDÉ

What does it mean to become an adult? In Namibia, it’s caring for others

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

AROUND the world, people become adults in different ways. In some places, it’s when you get a job, get married, or move out of your parents’ house. In others, it might include an initiation ritual, or taking leadership in your family or community. These milestones may differ, but they all point to the same question: what does it mean to “become an adult”? Understanding this matters – not only for psychologists who study human development and behaviour, but also for society, because adulthood is more than just getting older. It shapes our motivations and identity, how we relate to others,…