Bird Stories

Africa’s gas share in the global market will increase to over 11% of all gas supplies by 2050, according to a report by Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), from 6% in 2021.

Rolling Stone, one of the world’s leading music publications platforms, kicked off the new year with an update to its rankings, which began in 2008, honouring the best vocalists in pop music.

Fed up with the perennial darkness in his village, Israel Habimana sold his house and piece of land and used the proceeds to build a mini-hydroelectric power station. Today the Kirehe region enjoys unlimited electricity access.

Kenyan banks, increasingly embattled by mobile money providers, are looking to wrestle control from industry leader M-Pesa

Projections show that Africa’s real gross domestic product will stabilize at 4% over 2023–24, then grow at consistently higher rates than other regions.

Google recently announced the expansion of its offline translation by adding 33 new languages, including nine African languages, to the Google Translate app on iOS and Android.

Nairobi, Kenya | BIRD AGENCY | Kenya, the most famous country in Eastern Africa, was named the world’s leading Safari destination for 2021 by the World Travel Awards for the seventh year in a row. With over 50 national parks and game reserves, the country’s vast wildlife preserves have remained a competitive destination among domestic and international tourists.

A typical workday in the life of Gbenga Adeku starts with sorting through materials in his studio, digitally sketching concepts, and collaborating with various contract workers to make his ideas a reality. Based in Osun State, Nigeria, this plastic artist is motivated to transform plastic waste into something valuable.

At only 13 years old, Cleopatra Wanjiku's worst fears were confirmed when a hospital nurse informed her that she had tested positive for HIV. Before the diagnosis, her classmates had often insinuated that her mother, who died when she was eight, had succumbed to the virus. But Wanjiku paid no heed; after all, her grandmother continuously reassured her that her mother died from 'chest pains.'

Nigeria's former minister of finance, now World Trade Organisation (WTO) DG Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu and Nigerian media mogul Mo Abudu are the three Africans who made it to the Forbes' annual list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women.

Construction of the world’s largest telescopes has officially begun in South Africa and Australia, with 2028 as the completion date. The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project will see an area of about 33,000m² share data from space that the gigantic complex telescopes will collect.

The UN is seeking global consensus on taxing fossil fuel companies' windfall profits to fill Africa's energy transition and adaptation kitty. Ambitious new efforts are also underway to lower the carbon footprint in cement manufacturing in Africa on the back of population growth fueling demand for housing, schools and roads.

Kenyan e-mobility firm BasiGo recently secured $6.6 million (~R116 million) in new funding to fast-track commercial delivery of locally-assembled electric buses in the country, just the latest in a string of announcements that suggest that change is coming to African mobility.

Lorraine Sithole credits her passion for books to a family tradition instilled in her by her grandmother decades ago. This meant that early childhood literary success was celebrated and reinforced.

Africa’s carbon-intensive economies are racing to develop just energy transition plans as more green funding commitments begin to flow in.

Angelique Kidjo, Grammy Award Winning Artist, Batonga Co-Founder and UNICEF Goodwill AmbassadorMoky Makura, Executive Director, Africa No Filter

With the landmark “loss and damage” agenda adapted into the UN climate talks, Africa’s frontline negotiators now want a payment plan to feature in the final resolutions of the discussions.

Until recently, young children have been saving small amounts of cash on piggy banks or in physical banks through junior accounts that only allowed limited withdrawals at scheduled times of the year.

A chance encounter at the fish store where he worked led Franco Ndiba to drop his fillet knife for a paintbrush. Today, the artist is making international waves in the contemporary art scene.

In 2019, Obi Asika established the Iba Ajie Resource Center in Onitsha, Eastern Nigeria. The centre houses a tech hub, an academy, an audio-visual space, a museum, a library, a co-working space, and a restaurant.

As the continental men’s Africa Cup of Nations – a 65-year-old biannual event first held in Khartoum in 1957 – got underway, many eyes were firmly fixed on one stand-out referee, Mukansanga Salima. Mukansanga is the first-ever woman to officiate in the games and is one of 24 centre referees among the 63 official umpiring at CAN 2021.

In April, storms lashed Durban, claiming 460 lives and displacing 6 000 people. More than 8 000 houses, many informal and built on unstable foundations, slid down the city’s hills as the rains poured. Climate reports say these were among the worst weather events on the continent this year.

It was the first day of the much-anticipated Egoras Trade Fair in Port Harcourt, Southern Nigeria. The company said it would sell refurbished electronics at steep discounts, up to 70% off. At different corners of the mini-football field, where the items were on display. The company printed about 1,500 tickets for the event. There was one problem: more than 5,000 people showed up.

In a life-sized compound located in the heart of the marbled hall of the Doudou Ndiaye Coumba Rose National Grand Theatre, Alioune Diagne offers a retrospective of Senegal’s history.