Bird Stories

A student at Uganda's Makerere University joins the fight against malaria, making mosquito repellant from spoilt milk. Not only putting a smile on farmer's faces, she's carving a lane in the skin and beauty market.

Digital-savvy farmers in Africa are tapping social media platforms to network, learn and find new buyers for their products, outside traditional markets, according to a report.

Africa's space economy is set for continued growth, driven by broadband demand, NewSpace companies and domestic satellite programmes.

An aggressive new push by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) is tipped to help unlock critical financing to supercharge Africa's ambitious pivot from hydrocarbons to a clean energy future, as globally, extreme weather due to climate change bites.

Europe’s rush to replenish its gas stocks has unlocked a massive new market for Africa’s natural gas, with forecasts now showing the continent is on course to export 50% of its total gas output to Europe and Asia between now and 2025.

“ACT now” will be Africa’s clarion call at the COP27 as the continent intensifies calls for a just energy transition amid a worsening climate crisis. The “action” is likely to be seen more in the halls and offices of the world’s financing institutions than on the ground, however, as Africa battles with how to finance its energy requirements.

From starting Trace magazine in his bedroom to launching a variety of products under his media company True Africa, Claude Grunitzky has always been a media trailblazer. He also has a way with words.

Hundreds of electric buses will hit African roads by the end of the year as several countries start to replace internal combustion engine public transport vehicles.

A new fund is stirring up Africa's science scene as the continent races to reverse the tide of brain drain that has seen it lose some of its top talents to rich economies.

At 15, after a complicated delivery, Theresa Kadzura suffered an obstetric fistula, which hindered her from living a full life. This is a story of how a woman in Zimbabwe was able to beat negative attitudes towards formal healthcare in her church and community to face obstetric fistula.

The fundraising boom in Africa’s crypto space shows no sign of abating. Venture Capital flows into crypto ventures in the first half of this year surpassed the total for all of last year – $127-million – reports show.

Fatma Mohammed, who for years battled the little-discussed condition that in some areas affects up to 80 per cent of women of reproductive age, on her own, now leads the fight to educate women and overcome the trauma and other effects of uterine fibroids.

Sylvia Gathoni‘s passion has turned into a career, allowing her to travel the world. It’s also given her a platform – one she’s using to highlight issues of sexism and racism in e-sports.

THERE are currently 13 African players in the NBA and 40 with one African-born parent. That’s a major advance from the days of the first African NBA stars, including legendary players like Manute Bol and Hakeem Olajuwon and in recent years, Africa has become a major hunting ground for top talent.

15-year-old Cameroonian Wendy Musi and her schoolmates are pushing past taboos and becoming champions of awareness and information around menstruation and female health.

African art, all too often a sidebar at many major international exhibitions, is to get a new home when an iconic new centre launches in Senegal in 2025. The Bët-bi museum will house some of Africa’s most important contemporary and historic art and cultural relics.

For bronze caster, Alex Agbonmwenre, the return of the Benin Bronzes is about far more than the return of looted artefacts. It is also a reminder that the craft, which found a patron in Benin 800 years ago, has continued through an unbroken lineage of master craftsmen, ever since. And those master craftsmen can be found today, in Igun Street, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The conclusion of the second season of Africa’s newest league, the FIBA and NBA-backed Basketball Africa League has shown that support for the game is growing by leaps and bounds. That’s good news for Africa’s urban youth, for youth culture and continental collaboration. It’s also helping the NBA grow the sport’s impact well beyond the court – a key aim of the league, says BAL President, Amadou Gallo Fall, for whom the BAL is “bigger than basketball”.

In April 2020, Hlanze decided she had had enough due to Covid-19 lockdowns. She ventured into entrepreneurship. She sold vegetables and prepared convenient meal solutions, especially for working women. Hlanze’s advice to those that lost jobs during the peak of the pandemic is not to wait for a big break to come their way but rather, as she put it, “be that big break.”

South Africa is set for record citrus exports of 2.7 million tonnes in the marketing year 2021/22 despite pressing geopolitical challenges that threatened to leave a sour taste for farmers in the world's second biggest exporting market.