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Editor's note
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Africa’s extensive archaeological record dates back 3.3 million years and reveals just how inventive and ingenious people on the continent have always been. But, Julien Benoit writes, this scientific evidence is not enough to stop some from believing that ancient African people couldn’t possibly have led the way in terms of architectural wonders like Egypt’s Giza pyramid complex.
Many African graduates find it difficult to parlay their degree certificates into jobs. Seth Trudeau and Keno Omu suggest this is often because the way universities teach students simply don’t match up with what employers want in the working world.
There’s blood on the floor at the South African arm of international accounting firm KPMG. The CEO and seven senior executives have resigned after the company was caught with its hands in the slush fund jar. Jannie Rossouw believes this corporate accountability should be celebrated. And David Everatt explains what the KPMG saga reveals about ordinary South Africans’ fierce
opposition to corruption whether in government or the private sector.
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Natasha Joseph
Africa education editor
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Top Story
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Julien Benoit, University of the Witwatersrand
The belief that ancient Egyptians needed help from supernatural beings to built the Giza pyramids relies, unavoidably, on racism and colonial attitudes.
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Seth Trudeau, African Leadership University; Keno Omu, African Leadership University
For decades, African universities have placed greater focus on what they teach, rather than how they teach it. But the job market now demands graduates that have been taught to think, not regurgitate
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David Everatt, University of the Witwatersrand
The South African arm of the international accounting firm KPMG has learnt the hard lesson: Don't break the 11th commandment - don’t get caught. That's because South Africa's citizens are fed up with corruption.
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Jannie Rossouw, University of the Witwatersrand
KPMG South Africa executives have set a new benchmark for the country assuming responsibility for wrongdoing in their organisation.
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Environment + Energy
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David Obura, The University of Queensland
Amu Coal a Kenyan and Chinese consortium is set to build a coal plant in an area untouched by industrial development. The emissions alone will double the country’s energy sector's CO2 emissions.
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Philippe Roudier, AFD (Agence française de développement)
Historically low rainfalls have led to severe droughts in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. But various solutions exist to mitigate the social and economic impact.
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Arts + Culture
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Zimitri Erasmus, University of the Witwatersrand
Histories of the North Atlantic have had a preponderant influence on scholarship about race. But, for scholars in the humanities and social sciences who study southern Africa, this is changing.
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Adam de Paor-Evans, University of Central Lancashire
Bootlegs will continue to be manufactured.
The future of the bootleg might just reinvent the official release.
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Science + Technology
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Sandra Jasinoski, University of the Witwatersrand; Fernando Abdala, University of the Witwatersrand
Two fossils found in South Africa provide direct evidence of parental care in extinct pre-mammalian ancestors.
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Tammy Hodgskiss, University of the Witwatersrand
Bringing the past into a digital space creates so much more overt space for interpretation and different narratives.
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Politics + Society
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Hazel Cameron, University of St Andrews
The effects of President Mugabe's post-independence security clampdown that led to the murder of between 10 000 and 20 000 Zimbabweans, known as the Matabeleland massacre, continue to be felt.
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Glen Robbins, University of Amsterdam
Durban one of South Africa’s third largest cities, by population has reported that the number of people living in informal dwellings has remained stubbornly high.
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Health + Medicine
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Charlotte Baker, Lancaster University
An upcoming UN meeting on witchcraft and human rights in Geneva is set to focus on the rising attacks on Albinos and the trade of body parts in sub-Saharan African.
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Oyewale Tomori, Nigerian Academy of Science
Lassa outbreaks are becoming more widespread in Nigeria but have not been given national emergency status like Ebola.
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Business + Economy
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Oludayo Tade, University of Ibadan
Victims of ATM fraud in Nigeria are often shocked to find out that their defrauders are close family friends or relatives.
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Danny Bradlow, University of Pretoria
The promise of BRICS was that it would usher in a new approach to development. But after meeting annually for the last nine years there's no sign that the old order has been challenged.
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