From early on in his career, the father of Ethiopian jazz, Mulatu Astatke – who is performing at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival – and his musical output have been associated with travel. As Kay Kaufman Shelemay explains, cultural mobility emerges not just as an easy metaphor for Mulatu’s music, but as the decisive factor that produced Ethio-Jazz, his unique blend of Ethiopian music and western jazz.

African farmers lose about 50% of their crops to insects. As demand for food on the continent grows, pest control is becoming increasingly important. Esther Ngumbi explains that while pesticides are effective, they could be harmful in the long run which is why safer alternatives are needed.

Today is World Water Day. We’re marking it by publishing articles by leading academics on some of the big issues facing Africa, the world’s driest continent after Australia. As Ellis Adjei Adams writes, Africa’s water challenges have led to new ways of managing water in some urban and peri-urban areas. These now need to be supported by strong and coherent policies. While the theme of this year’s World Water Day is “The Answer is Nature”, Mike Muller warns that solutions based in nature might work in developed countries that have well-established infrastructure, but not in those that don’t.

In South Africa, Cape Town has entered a third year of drought. The situation in the city has become critical. Mary Galvin explains why inequity and a lack of fairness pervades water distribution while Kevin Winter looks at what’s behind the crisis.