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The Tazara railway line connecting Tanzania and Zambia is central to two of Africa’s trading blocs, but at over 40 years old it’s in poor repair. The two countries recently announced plans to upgrade the tracks and extend the line’s reach to South Africa, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Burundi and the DRC. As Tim Zajoltz explains, the plan faces not only a funding nightmare but also a technical hitch.
Inequalities persist in Africa’s cities, decades after colonial governance ended - and yet colonial roots are often blamed for all current problems. One man who called for a clearer understanding of this was Nigeria’s first professor of geography, Akinlawon Ladipo Mabogunje, who died recently at the age of 90. Basirat Oyalowo pays tribute to this pioneering urban scholar and his seminal book, Urbanization in Nigeria, which still offers today’s geography
students a valuable African perspective.
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Tim Zajontz, University of Freiburg
Tazara upgrade requires huge capital but new tracks could be incompatible with the existing Southern Africa rails.
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Basirat Oyalowo, University of Lagos
Akinlawon Ladipo Mabogunje was Nigeria’s first professor of geography. He has died at 90.
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Lilac Nachum, City University of New York
Business managers rethinking supply chains should consider COVID effects, the African free trade area and green industrial growth.
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Moina Spooner, The Conversation; Segun Oluwagbile, The Conversation
Nigeria’s public university system has lost about 57 months to industrial action since 1999. This has implications for the future workforce.
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Wandile Sihlobo, Stellenbosch University
South Africa’s agricultural exports are vulnerable because of reliance on a few markets and weaknesses in domestic logistics chains.
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From our international editions
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Taichi A. Suzuki, Max Planck Institute for Biology; Ruth Ley, Max Planck Institute for Biology
As early modern humans spread across the globe, their gut microbes genetically changed with them. Understanding the origins of gut microbes could improve understanding of their role in human health.
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Zania Stamataki, University of Birmingham; Adrian Shields, University of Birmingham
This guidance replaces previous conditional recommendations for the use of these drugs and is based on emerging evidence that they’re not likely to work against omicron.
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Kevin Trenberth, University of Auckland
A climate scientist explains the forces behind the summer’s extreme downpours and dangerous heat waves, and why new locations will be at risk in the coming year.
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James Clifford Kent, Royal Holloway University of London
An award-winning photographer reflects on iconic images of the late monarch and pictures a nation in mourning
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