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Decades after independence, the shadow of colonialism still looms large over many African countries. Kasper Hoffmann unpacks how ethnic territories, imagined and constructed by the colonial administration, have been used in political struggles for power and resources in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The colonial ways of administering indigenous populations played an important role in sowing the seeds of today’s ethnic tensions. Gordon Pirie, on the other hand, says Nairobi’s three airports are a window into the institutional complexities, compromises and devices of late colonialism. They weren’t imagined and planned as part of organic city land use or changing urban ecology. Instead, airports happened to colonial Nairobi.
Trials for the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine were conducted in South Africa and the UK. In this article, as well as this podcast, Professor Shabir Madhi, who is heading up the trial in South Africa, explains what’s behind the different outcomes in the two countries and why the trial is particularly significant. He also sets out why involvement in a trial doesn’t automatically mean a country has access to a
vaccine.
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Internally displaced persons gather for government briefing in South Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the scene of violent clashes between rival communities since 2019.
Photo by ALEXIS HUGUET/AFP via Getty Images
Kasper Hoffmann, Ghent University
Because ethnic territories are a major source of political friction and persecution in the world, it's important to investigate how they are created and used in conflicts.
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The plane carrying UK’s Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh arrives at Eastleigh Airport in Nairobi in February 1952.
Photo by: Bristol Archives/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Gordon Pirie, University of Cape Town
Airport passenger terminals are often designed to flaunt a city and country. Embakasi's rudimentary terminal made Nairobi’s newest airport more colonial utility than colonial showpiece.
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Health + Medicine
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Shabir A. Madhi, University of the Witwatersrand
The results indicate that the vaccine efficacy in the UK was 89% for individuals who received at least two doses of vaccine. In South Africa, the vaccine efficacy was 60% in people without HIV.
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Ozayr Patel, The Conversation
The Novavax vaccine is the first that provides objective scientific evidence that it can protect people against the variant virus circulating in South Africa.
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From our international editions
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Adam Simpson, University of South Australia; Nicholas Farrelly, University of Tasmania
It is difficult to see how the military will benefit from another coup, since it already enjoyed immense political and economic influence under the previous power-sharing agreement.
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Subir Sinha, SOAS, University of London
As the protests escalate, Modi's grip on India's internet communications remains as tight as ever.
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Rob Reddick, The Conversation
Tensions run high as EU vaccine deliveries fall behind schedule, while new vaccines are being created to handle mutant viral strains.
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Jacqueline McGlade, UCL; Philip Landrigan, Boston College
Polluted oceans don't just harm wildlife, they are a source of ill health for humans too.
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