Righting the wrongs of colonialism and apartheid still features prominently in public debates. Take the looting of African artefacts that are now held in Western museums. In making the case that these artefacts should be returned to Africa, Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes argues that repatriation will restore the agency of Africans as producers of their own history. Marius Oosthuizen, meanwhile, proposes a radically different approach to reversing the legacies of apartheid.

Women across the world often find themselves vulnerable and open to exploitation. For instance, in the wake of recent flooding in Mozambique women were being forced to trade sex for aid supplies. The incident highlighted the fact that not enough is done to protect women’s safety in disaster situations. Kristin Bergtora Sandvik explains what she found in her research on sexual exploitation of displaced women in Uganda and Colombia. Vulnerability is also an issue for women students on campuses in Nigeria. Oludayo Tadeon sets out what he discovered about how young women navigate transactional sex in Nigerian universities.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Even though science, technology, engineering and maths tend to be dominated by men, PhD candidate Ndoni Mcunu has taken the plunge. She shares her story of being a black woman in science while Pasha Sosina Bezu explains why she believes the appointment of women into top positions in Ethiopia will have a major impact on young girls in the country.

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