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The world has the science to transform food systems. The next frontier is scaling it

The world has the science to transform food systems. The next frontier is scaling it

THE world’s food systems face real and urgent challenges. These include climate change, nutrition insecurity, food safety, and unequal access to markets. Research has produced practical solutions to each of these that could benefit hundreds of millions of people. Too few are moved into widespread use. For years, the development sector has flattered itself with pilots. A new tool works in a controlled pilot, a crop variety performs well in a field trial, and a digital advisory service shows promise in early testing. Evidence is written up, a case study or experiment is published, and then comes the familiar refrain:…
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World Cup history: a timeline of Africa’s greatest moments on the field

World Cup history: a timeline of Africa’s greatest moments on the field

THE history of African performances at the men’s football World Cup is a story of resilience, technical skill, joyful expression, and the breaking of systemic barriers. For decades, global football governance structures heavily favoured European and South American teams, leaving Africa to fight not just for wins on the pitch, but for representation itself. As a sports scholar, I’ve published numerous studies on Africa at the World Cup. In a new self-published book, I outline the defining moments for the continent at the tournament. They help tell the story of how African football transformed itself from a peripheral curiosity into…
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Beyond the assembly line: Inside Ford SA’s quiet century-long promise to South Africa

Beyond the assembly line: Inside Ford SA’s quiet century-long promise to South Africa

LONG before a single bolt is torqued onto a Ford Ranger at the Silverton Assembly Plant in Pretoria, Ford South Africa is already at work in communities that will never buy one of its vehicles — in classrooms teaching five-year-olds to read, in disaster zones where roads have washed away, and in rural villages where the nearest clinic is a taxi ride most families cannot afford. It is, says Neale Hill, President of Ford Motor Company Africa and Managing Director of Ford South Africa, precisely the point. For a company whose commercial future depends on convincing government and global executives…
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Tanzania has banned political rallies again: what the government fears

Tanzania has banned political rallies again: what the government fears

PUBLIC rallies were banned in Tanzania in June 2026 for the second time in a decade. The first ban was imposed by President John Magufuli in 2016. His successor, President Samia Hassan, lifted it in 2023 as part of a reform agenda. Now she has reimposed the ban. Dan Paget has spent over a decade chronicling the struggles of Tanzania’s democracy movement amid waves of repression. He’s had a special focus on a form of political communication that’s of extraordinary significance in Tanzania: mass rallies. He unpacks what this latest ban means. Why has Tanzania banned political rallies again? Tanzania…
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Uganda is latest in Africa’s destination branding boom

Uganda is latest in Africa’s destination branding boom

UGANDA'S latest "Explore Uganda, The Pearl of Africa" campaign has turned buses in France into moving billboards, the latest step in the country's push to attract tourists, investment, and business from Europe and beyond. The campaign reflects a wider shift across Africa, where governments are investing as much in selling their national brands as they are in selling their destinations, bringing together tourism, trade, culture, sport, exports, and diaspora engagement to compete for global attention. According to Doreen Ruth Amule, Uganda's ambassador to France, "the summer-long campaign is intended to showcase Uganda's tourism attractions, cultural heritage, and investment opportunities to…
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Shopping for God in Lagos: What is Chrislam?

Shopping for God in Lagos: What is Chrislam?

NIGERIA’S economic hub, Lagos, ranks among the fastest-growing cities in the world. Its huge population – estimated at around 20 million – and its rapid urbanisation contribute to a sense of life where survival hinges on improvisation and ingenuity. Nigerian musician Fela Kuti captured the megacity’s chronic difficulties with the expression “impossibilityism”. Yet, Lagos is also widely regarded as a place brimming with possibility. https://www.youtube.com/embed/VFC-IANwcQI My research as an anthropologist with a focus on religion shows that a significant number of Lagosians turn to religion in the hope of converting the impossible into the possible. Religion is not only for…
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Morocco’s hidden history: archaeology, DNA and carbon dating rewrite the story of the ancient world

Morocco’s hidden history: archaeology, DNA and carbon dating rewrite the story of the ancient world

FOR decades, stories about the ancient Mediterranean have centred on the grand cultures of Greece, Rome, Phoenicia and Egypt. Northwest Africa seldom enters the picture before the arrival of Phoenician traders on the Moroccan coast about 3,000 years ago. But archaeology is now revealing a different story. Long before the first Phoenician ships (from today’s Middle East) sailed the western Mediterranean (between today’s North Africa and southern Europe), communities in what is now Morocco were farming and herding animals. They were also crossing the Strait of Gibraltar and participating in long-distance exchanges. Over the past decade, I’ve worked on archaeology…
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BMW unveils five-way power play with all-new X5 – electric, hydrogen and the ‘Heart of Joy’

BMW unveils five-way power play with all-new X5 – electric, hydrogen and the ‘Heart of Joy’

THE car that has long been BMW's calling card in the luxury SUV wars is about to get louder, cleaner and considerably smarter. The fifth-generation BMW X5 is in the final stretch of its development programme, tearing through calibration drives around the carmaker's production heartland at Plant Spartanburg in the United States - and when it lands, it will do something no BMW production model has ever done before: arrive with a choice of five distinct drive systems under one badge. Petrol. Diesel. Plug-in hybrid. Fully electric. And, from 2028, hydrogen. It is less a model launch than a statement…
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Hybrid seed leading revival of cotton farming in Zimbabwe

Hybrid seed leading revival of cotton farming in Zimbabwe

FOR more than two decades, 56-year-old cotton farmer Aleck Bikostone has dedicated his life to cotton farming in Chinhoyi - the north-central capital of Zimbabwe’s Mashonaland West Province - despite market disturbances, climate change, and rising costs of inputs that threaten the crop. Standing among cotton fields at a research farm in Kadoma along the road between Harare and Bulawayo, Bikostone tells the story of a cotton farming journey that has long hours of labour and perseverance despite global price fluctuations, which he describes as both a blessing and a challenge. According to Stewart Mubonderi, the national chairman of the…
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Robust global action is key to curbing Sudan atrocities

Robust global action is key to curbing Sudan atrocities

The United Nations Security Council on June 20 warned of the “imminent risk of mass atrocities” in El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan region in western Sudan, which for months now has been the epicenter of fierce fighting between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). The conflict, which broke out in April 2023, has claimed tens of thousands of lives, caused millions to flee their homes, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters. The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, also issued a “stark warning” on June 18 over the risk of atrocities as…
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