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The African National Congress (ANC), the former liberation movement that has been South Africa’s governing party since democracy in 1994, is driving the process of establishing a government of national unity. This follows the humiliating loss of its parliamentary majority in the 2024 general election. Roger Southall argues that, with only 40% of the vote, the ANC can no longer claim to be the voice of South Africans.
All the world’s baobab trees originated in Madagascar, a new study has found. The research concluded that as storms swept the island, baobab seeds and seedlings were washed into rivers and then out to sea, eventually landing in different parts of the world, including mainland Africa. Seeds were then dispersed across the continent, as far as Senegal, in the dung of elephants.
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Thabo Leshilo
Politics + Society
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Roger Southall, University of the Witwatersrand
Never has the future of South Africa’s politics been more uncertain, but the one certainty is that the ANC’s standing as a liberation movement is dead.
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Andrew R. Leitch, Queen Mary University of London
New research has found that the world’s baobab trees all evolved on Madagascar 21 million years ago. Sometime in the last 12 million years, they floated on piles of debris to Australia and Africa.
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Environment + Energy
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Mohamed Keznine, Université Abdelmalek Essaadi
Dolphins are ruining the catch of fishermen off the coast of Morocco and getting injured in the process.
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Joachim De Weerdt, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) ; Jan Duchoslav, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
The El Niño drought in Malawi decimated the maize harvest this year. It has left the country with few options other than importing food.
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Angelo Carlino, Carnegie Science; Andrea Castelletti, Polytechnic University of Milan; Rafael Schmitt, Stanford University
As renewable energy becomes cheaper and climate change affects water availability, the contribution of hydropower will decline.
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Politics
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Mashupye Herbert Maserumule, Tshwane University of Technology
Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe is now the largest party in KwaZulu-Natal and the fourth biggest nationally.
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Philippe Burger, University of the Free State
South Africans need to hold onto their seats. It’s going to be a rocky five years.
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Carin Runciman, The University of Edinburgh; Marcel Paret, University of Utah
Racial identities continue to shape voter behaviour in post-apartheid South Africa.
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Lawrence Hamilton, University of the Witwatersrand
Solutions driven by the private sector are only for those who can pay, and also end up driving public priorities.
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Business + Economy
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Lite Nartey, INSEAD
African countries need to find an alternative that acknowledges that sustainable development and economic growth are interdependent.
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Arts, Culture + Society
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Nemata Blyden, University of Virginia
Ghana has long attracted African Americans who have suffered racial injustices in the US.
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Christian Hamann, Gauteng City-Region Observatory
While a few new residential developments improve racial mixing, most other developments do not.
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Erik Meinema, Utrecht University
Fears about witchcraft and terrorism in coastal Kenya have shaped the ways in which various religious groups express themselves.
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Health + Medicine
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Jack Jenkins, Durham University; Hannah Brown, Durham University; Tommy Matthew Hanson, Njala University; Wahab Lawundeh, University of Basel
Reducing risk requires moving beyond heavy-handed solutions like banning bushmeat, and instead focusing on making markets safer.
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James Wintrup, Chr. Michelsen Institute
Medical volunteering can damage important relationships between health professionals and patients.
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