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Sex sells in these Zimbabwe take-out chicken ads – showing how fragile masculinity is

Sex sells in these Zimbabwe take-out chicken ads – showing how fragile masculinity is

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 put regulations in place to prohibit ads featuring gender stereotypes that could cause harm or lead to significant or widespread offence. Zimbabwe is no exception. This is particularly the case with the marketing strategy of the popular chain Mambo’s Chicken, which often uses humour and innuendo. My research…
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Drought is devastating southern Africa’s crops: why it’s happening and what can be learned

Drought is devastating southern Africa’s crops: why it’s happening and what can be learned

SOUTHERN Africa’s worst drought in years has destroyed crops of the staple food, maize, across the region. Malawi, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Namibia have all been affected by the drought. Crop failures in South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe – the largest maize producers in southern Africa – have destabilised food security in the whole region. The situation is escalating: the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has now announced that 68 million people need urgent food aid. The drought is driven by El Niño, an unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean that shifts…
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Podcasts bring southern Africa’s liberation struggle to life – thanks to an innovative new audio archive

Podcasts bring southern Africa’s liberation struggle to life – thanks to an innovative new audio archive

MUCH has been written about the struggles for liberation in southern Africa that took place between the 1960s and early 1990s in countries such as Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. This period of history has been transcribed, interpreted and written about in books, academic monographs and colonial treatises. But the sounds and voices these wars and conflicts produced have largely remained muted. As a result, African liberation figures and histories can become one-dimensional and flattened. Now, a new podcast series, Echoes of Southern African Independence Struggles, resurfaces sound and audio archives of Swiss journalism that are mainly deposited…
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Green energy for all: Zimbabwe will need a new social contract to roll out projects like solar power

Green energy for all: Zimbabwe will need a new social contract to roll out projects like solar power

THE Zimbabwean government is racing against time to meet the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 7: affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. However, the race towards green energy is top-down and mostly privatised. New technology is being introduced or sold to individuals or small families, but renewable energy is not being made part of a decent life for the entire community. Sustainable transitions researchers Ellen Fungisai Chipango and Long Seng To have researched ways to use the communal ethic of African ubuntu, expressed as “a person is a person through other persons”, in the rollout of…
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Double tragedy: the Zimbabwe farmers affected by illegal mining and climate change

Double tragedy: the Zimbabwe farmers affected by illegal mining and climate change

SMALLHOLDER farmers in rural Gwanda, a region in Zimbabwe that borders South Africa, have been affected by a double shock – a combination of heat, droughts and floods caused by climate change, and water contamination and damaged land caused by illegal, small-scale mining. Droughts in Gwanda have significantly affected rural farmers and increased over the past 40 years. This has left many families impoverished after harvests failed. Illegal, small-scale mining for gold in Zimbabwe has resulted in deforestation, land degradation, water pollution, and loss of biodiversity in the area, making the problem worse. Not all small-scale mining in Zimbabwe is…
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Chipo Maenzanise is Zimbabwe’s own superwoman

Chipo Maenzanise is Zimbabwe’s own superwoman

AFTER facing ridicule for her "muscular" stature during her school years, Chipo Maenzanise found solace and inspiration in weightlifting. She started jogging and eventually joined a professional health and fitness club where her passion for powerlifting was ignited after she was introduced to the sport. That passion has turned into gold for the women's powerlifting star. Chido Maenzanise grips a 300-kilogram sandbag with her gloved hands and her eyes narrow in intense focus. The pounding beat of Sia's "Unstoppable" fills the air as she begins her early morning workout routine. Sweat glistens on her brow as she transitions into her…
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Dozens beaten, some arrested after Zimbabwe opposition leader denied bail

Dozens beaten, some arrested after Zimbabwe opposition leader denied bail

ZIMBABWEAN police beat dozens of opposition supporters and arrested several outside a court in the capital Harare, after Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party members were denied bail following their arrests two weeks ago. A Harare magistrate denied bail to the party's interim leader Jameson Timba and 78 activists arrested on June 16 for holding a political gathering which authorities said was unauthorised. Timba took over as interim leader of the CCC after former leader Nelson Chamisa quit the party in January, alleging it had been hijacked by the ruling ZANU-PF party. Police anti-riot units guarded the entrance to the court and…
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China’s Tsingshan $1 bln steel plant in Zimbabwe starts production

China’s Tsingshan $1 bln steel plant in Zimbabwe starts production

CHINA'S nickel giant Tsingshan Holding Group has started production at its $1 billion steel plant in central Zimbabwe, a company official said. Tsingshan's Dinson Iron and Steel Company will produce 600,000 metric tons of carbon steel annually during the first phase of its operations, project director Wilfred Motsi told reporters during a tour of the plant. "We have started to produce pig iron, which is a raw material used for the production of steel. By July, that's when we will start to produce the actual carbon steel," Motsi said. He did not say how long the first phase would last.…
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A passion for piglets and a head for numbers has this woman farmer smiling all the way to the bank

A passion for piglets and a head for numbers has this woman farmer smiling all the way to the bank

“THIS isn’t a cosy retreat but a bustling workplace,” joked Letwina Nyagano with laughter in her eyes as she led a tour around her pigpens. The words were a gentle reminder that her piggery was not a vacation spot but a realm of sweat, toil, and purpose. Today, Nyagano, 61, is a renowned pig entrepreneur based in Norton Ward 15 in the Mashonaland West Province of Zimbabwe. Her journey in piggery production started with only three piglets. Her start was hardly inspiring; she kept running into problems trying to build a sizeable herd. “When I first stepped into the world…
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Zimbabwe’s new dinosaur discovery: inside the find

Zimbabwe’s new dinosaur discovery: inside the find

VISITORS to Lake Kariba – the world’s largest man-made lake, along the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe – come to enjoy the abundant wildlife, fine fishing or spectacular scenery. However, in 2017, our crew of palaeontologists came to Zimbabwe to hunt game of a different kind: dinosaurs. Many of our discoveries are still under study, but the team has just announced its first new dinosaur, dubbed Musankwa sanyatiensis. At first sight, it’s unremarkable – just a few bones from a single hind leg. It was found with the thigh, shin and ankle bones still connected, but weathering out on the…
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