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Editor's note
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It’s a tiny, tiny island. But the international legal issues at play in the dispute between Uganda and Kenya over Migingo island are hugely important. Christopher R. Rossi traces the genesis of a scramble for the pinprick of an island in Lake Victoria.
The battle lines have been drawn as South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress, gears up to elect new leaders. Susan Booysen explains why exact calculations remain impossible and why the result between the two frontrunners will come down to the wire.
The bitcoin investment craze, is raising fears of a bubble. Co-Pierre George unpacks the ins and outs of the cryptocurrency, and why it’s likely to crash.
For the Democratic Republic of Congo, 2017 has been a horrible year. Reuben Loffman explains why President Joseph Kabila must step down or risk plunging the country into full blown civil war.
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Julius Maina
Regional Editor East Africa
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Top Story
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Christopher R. Rossi, University of Iowa
The dispute between Uganda and Kenya over an islet half the size of a football pitch has been fuelled by the perceived imbalance in fish harvests and the prospects of oil reserves beneath.
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Susan Booysen, University of the Witwatersrand
The race for the presidency of South Africa's governing ANC will go down to the wire. Exact calculations for the frontrunners are impossible and the result is likely to be known by 17 or 18 December.
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Co-Pierre Georg, University of Cape Town; Qobolwakhe Dube, University of Cape Town
The astronomic rise of the price of bitcoin over the past 12 months raises fears that the cryptocurrency is set to crash which could see many people lose money.
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Reuben Loffman, Queen Mary University of London
President Joseph Kabila was supposed to step down at the end of his term in 2016. By clinging on to power he threw the Democratic Republic of Congo into a vicious cycle of deadly conflict.
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Education
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Peter Rule, Stellenbosch University
It's common knowledge that children are voracious learners but the famous cliche suggests that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. This simply isn't true.
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Politics + Society
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Siphamandla Zondi, University of Pretoria
Zimbabweans have every right to celebrate the end of Robert Mugabe's long and disastrous reign, but they would be wrong to assume that this is the end of their political problems.
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Claire Elder, University of Oxford
The self-declared territory of Somaliland has held peaceful elections since it broke away from Somalia in 1991. But last month's polls triggered protests that should be cause for reflection.
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Frank Mattheis, University of Pretoria; John Kotsopoulos, University of Pretoria
The transformation of the EU-Africa summit series into the EU-AU summit is more than just a change of name. It reflects the increasing recognition of the AU as an international actor.
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Leighann Spencer, Charles Sturt University
Nigeria is on the verge of passing a law to criminalise rampant mob lynching. Other countries have tried to do this and failed.
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Keith Gottschalk, University of the Western Cape
The ANC's elective conference is important for the party and South Africa. This is because the person chosen to lead the governing party since 1994, has gone on to become president.
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Dirk Kotze, University of South Africa
The South African Communist Party's decision to compete in an election against its alliance partner the ANC is a watershed moment for them, with important implications for the country.
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Cobus van Staden, South African Institute of International Affairs; Chris Alden, London School of Economics and Political Science
A narrow interest in whether Beijing actively pushed for Mugabe’s fall is based on the assumption that the China-Africa relationship is an isolated phenomenon.
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Health + Medicine
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Sinead Delany-Moretlwe, University of the Witwatersrand; Saiqa Mullick, University of the Witwatersrand
South Africa's data rollout of its pre-exposure prophylaxis shows that there is a relatively slow, but increasing, uptake. However, more needs to be done to target young women.
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Asit K. Biswas, National University of Singapore; Kris Hartley, Cornell University
Governments must understand that the factors making cities convenient and productive also make their residents prone to obesity. They must confront this challenge with intelligent, focused policies.
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Science + Technology
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Swapan Kumar Patra, Tshwane University of Technology
Africa has recorded a tremendous growth in its output of academic engineering research over the past 20 years. Greater collaboration can increase this growth even more.
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Environment + Energy
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Xikombiso Mbhenyane, Stellenbosch University; Irene Labuschagne, Stellenbosch University
South Africa has problems with hunger and obesity and both are linked to malnutrition. But solutions like taxes, education, regulating food advertising and labelling can help the problem.
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Calestous Juma, Harvard University
African countries, like Nigeria and Ethiopia, increased their food production using a system-wide approach, and not the traditional reliance on isolated projects.
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Business + Economy
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Steven Friedman, University of Johannesburg
The South African oddity is that those who in other societies would be arguing against free passes for the affluent, argue for them.
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Regis Simo, University of the Witwatersrand
Cameroon's Anglophone crisis that's pitted its English speaking citizens against the central government could result in the country being denied preferential trade agreements with the US.
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Arts + Culture
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Vashna Jagarnath, Rhodes University
Russian revolutionary Nadezhda Krupskaya, like other leading women in the new Stalin-led state, was marginalised. But in her case, because she was Lenin's widow.
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Jenny Mbaye, City, University of London
Ségou in Mali has successfully developed its urban cultural economy in ways that's inclusive, sustainable and context-sensitive.
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